Judge's order includes learning English
St. Petersburg Times ^ | March 21, 2006 | COLLEEN JENKINS
PASCO COUNTY - To get their kids back from the state, a Mexican couple in Hudson must learn English.
Circuit Judge William Webb said classes he ordered the couple to attend are not available in Spanish in Pasco County and are not as beneficial when taken through an interpreter.
But piqued Hispanic advocates and legal experts said the ability to speak English has nothing to do with successful parenting.
"It probably is a good idea that they learn English," said Howard Simon, executive director of Florida's American Civil Liberties Union chapter. "But I'm not sure that it's appropriate for a judge to use all of the coercive power of the American legal system to mandate" it.
Neither does the body that regulates judicial conduct in Tennessee. Last year, a judge in Lebanon, Tenn., threatened to terminate a mother's parental rights if she didn't learn English. The judge was disciplined.
The Southern Poverty Law Center represented the mother in that case.
"Under the Constitution, the right to parent your child is a fundamental right," said Mary Bauer, an attorney for the Law Center, based in Montgomery, Ala. "It can only be intruded upon for very good cause, and the failure to learn English is certainly not good cause."
Webb's ruling may be a first for Pasco County, where 10 percent of residents speak a language other than English at home.
Last week, the couple appeared before him for a dependency court hearing. Child welfare workers had placed the couple's two young sons in foster care after the children were found wandering away from home. Officials also accused the parents, who work for a concrete business, of alcohol abuse and domestic violence.
The judge ordered the standard parenting classes, plus Alcoholics Anonymous and batterers intervention.
Then he asked them through their interpreter if they planned to seek permanent residence in the United States.
"Si," they said.
So Webb added English classes to the case plan, a series of requirements, usually taking about a year, that parents must fulfill to regain custody of their children. The couple and their attorneys did not object.
"I thought their future success was going to be very much influenced by whether or not they were able to speak English," the judge said in an interview with the St. Petersburg Times .
"I view it only as a tool to achieve case plan compliance, and case plan compliance hopefully leads to reunification," he added.
Through the father's lawyer, Russell Querry, the couple declined to speak with the Times. Because abuse and neglect court files are sealed, their names and further details were unavailable.
Attorneys for both parents said English classes would help their clients assimilate into American society.
But Mark Goettel, who represents the mother, said he thought the order was inappropriate.
"I'm just not sure it's something that they'll be able to accomplish in one year," he said. "I don't know that it's necessary in order to take care of a child to have to speak English."
Neither attorney planned to appeal.
Others were less agreeable.
"It's just an injustice to require someone to learn English when (the services) should be available for a family in Spanish," said Enrique Gallardo, a staff attorney with the Latino Issues Forum in California.
The order puts undue pressure on the parents, said Margarita Romo, director of Farmworkers Self-Help Inc. in Dade City. Learning a new language takes much longer than a typical case plan, she said.
"Who's going to decide that they know enough to get their kids back?" Romo said. "There's no way that you can translate the love that a parent has for their child."
State law isn't specific on what limitations bind a judge trying to ensure the safety and well-being of a child, said Tracy Ellis, an adjunct professor at Stetson University College of Law. An argument could be made that learning English would open more opportunities for the Mexican family, she said.
On the other hand, an appellate court also might rule that the order infringed on the couple's civil rights.
"Certainly, if the parents were deaf, well then we wouldn't say, "Well, you have to hear,"' said Ellis, who also directs Hillsborough County's guardian ad litem program.
Technically, English is Florida's official language. Voters in 1988 approved a constitutional amendment that made it so, but legislators never passed laws to give the amendment teeth.
Backers of such laws say immigrants who learn English earn better wages and are able to communicate with their children's teachers and doctors.
"Learning English can only be a benefit," said Rob Toonkel, communications director for U.S. English, a group that wants English declared the official language of the United States. "Sometimes a suggestion by a judge or a neighbor or anyone ... is what pushes people to go" to English classes.
Court workers couldn't recall any similar orders in Hillsborough or Pinellas counties.
Judge Webb said his colleagues in Seminole and Miami-Dade counties have employed the strategy. But when asked about the practice, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Cindy S. Lederman said, "We don't do that here."
Lederman, who oversees the juvenile division, said people gain the most from classes in their native tongue. The Miami-Dade circuit offers services in English, Spanish and Creole.
This being his first time making such an order, Webb said he didn't know exactly how the Hudson couple's English proficiency would be measured.
"Maybe by talking to me in court," he said.
And if they don't become fluent? The judge said he wouldn't keep their children from them for that reason alone.
"Whatever they accomplish is a positive," he said.
He ordered an interpreter to assist them with services in the meantime.
Colleen Jenkins can be reached at 727 869-6236 or cjenkins@sptimes.com
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........"It's just an injustice to require someone to learn English when (the services) should be available for a family in Spanish," said Enrique Gallardo, a staff attorney with the Latino Issues Forum in California.
.....State law isn't specific on what limitations bind a judge trying to ensure the safety and well-being of a child, said Tracy Ellis, an adjunct professor at Stetson University College of Law. An argument could be made that learning English would open more opportunities for the Mexican family, she said.
On the other hand, an appellate court also might rule that the order infringed on the couple's civil rights.
"Certainly, if the parents were deaf, well then we wouldn't say, "Well, you have to hear,"' said Ellis, who also directs Hillsborough County's guardian ad litem program. .................. |
