Uncertain Time for Immigrants’ Children in School

01On the first day of seventh grade in Aurora, Colorado, this past August, Alison Ramirez worried about making friends and not understanding lessons taught in English.

02I was nervous that people would ask me things, and I wouldn't know how to answer, the Venezuelan teen says, and I would be ashamed to answer in Spanish.

03But it was not what she had expected.

04Her teachers had translated words from their lessons into Spanish.

05They gave out written instructions in Spanish.

06Some teachers even asked in Spanish if students had finished or had questions.

07That made me feel better, says Alison.

08The 13-year-old is among the 3,000 new students, mostly from Venezuela and Colombia, at the Aurora public school system.

09While teachers have been working hard to educate children of immigrants, outside the classrooms, city officials are not as welcoming.

10They promised not to spend any money helping newcomers, and tried to keep them from coming to the area.

11One city official even claimed that criminals from Venezuela had occupied buildings in Aurora.

12The police investigated and found it was not true.

13But the false claim continued to spread.

14Maria Ángel Torres is Alison's mother.

15The family had left Venezuela to escape lawlessness and violence.

16They left behind a food truck business, after being attacked for not paying protection money.

17The family then crossed the dangerous Darien Gap on foot to head north and seek asylum in the United States.

18Torres said she did not believe criminals had taken over buildings.

19But she worried that bad reports about Venezuelans would affect her and her family.

20Some organizations and churches wanted to help her family.

21But others are deeply afraid.

22Torres told the Associated Press, I don't look like a threat, but people here act like they feel terrorized.

23Aurora is used to educating children of immigrants.

24The 2020 census reported that more than a third of people in Aurora speak a language other than English at home.

25immigrants and refugees have been moving to Aurora because it is close to Denver and it has a lower cost of living.

26However, some schools in the area were not ready for the sudden arrival of many non-English-speaking students from Venezuela and Colombia.

27Before, a teacher might have had one or two new students in her class.

28Now, teachers in some schools have as many as ten or a third of their classroom.

29Marcella Garcia is the head of Aurora Hills Middle School.

30She observed that some new students were not talking in classrooms where only English was spoken.

31So, the school system advised teachers to use a method called translanguaging.

32That means using Spanish or the home language at times to help new students understand English lessons and discussions happening around them.

33The method has helped Allison feel more at ease.

34One day in September, Allison and her friends spoke Spanish among themselves as their teacher spoke to the class in English about a drawing he was showing in front of the class.

35It was a drawing of an ancient Egyptian marketplace.

36What do you think this dude here is doing with the basket?

37The teacher asked the class.

38One girl, who had been in Aurora schools longer than the rest, translated for Allison and the other new students.

39Before the school began using this new method, teachers may have stopped the new students from talking among themselves.

40Now, they permit students to help each other in any language they can.

41So far, there appears to be little public criticism in the area against this method.

42It generally requires more work for teachers who have to translate materials or their talks in real time.

43Recently, Allison's mother received messages from Aurora Public Schools that there have been rumors of bomb threats at its schools and others across the state.

44The schools said there was no truth to the rumors.

45But that does not make Torres feel better.

46She said, in Venezuela, the country is in trouble, but no one there would think of threatening children at school.

47I'm Jill Robbins.