The Texas principal who reportedly barred students from speaking Spanish on campus could get fired, according to a report by My Fox Houston.
School board officials in Hempstead, a small town located just one hour northwest of Houston, proposed on Wednesday that Hempstead Middle School Principal Amy Lacey's contract not be renewed at the end of the school year.
Lacey, who has been on paid administrative leave since she banned students from speaking Spanish late 2013, reportedly broadcast on the school's intercom that Spanish-speaking was not allowed on campus, citing an effort to "prevent disruptions."
Attorney with the Latin Legal Voice Salina Morena told My Fox Houston that some kids didn't even want to return to the campus after the announcement was made.
"Students were shamed until they did not want to come to school anymore," Moreno stated.
According to a report by Fox News, some Latino organizations are urging federal investigators to open a probe into the principal's actions to see whether civil rights violations were being breached.
"When you start banning aspects of ethnicity or cultural identity, it sends the message that the child is not wanted: 'We don't want your color. We don't want your kind.' They then tend to drop out early," director of the League of United Latin American Citizens Region 18 Augustin Pinedo told The Houston Chronicle this week.
Fox News reported that The League of United Latin American Citizens is calling on the FBI to look closely into potential hate crimes being committed at the middle school.
School district spokesperson Lauri Bettis told Fox News that some questionable recent events could have been racially targeted.
"There was an incident in February where brake lines were cut on buses, three school buses," she said.
But there has been no officially confirmed link between this act of vandalism and the principal's ban.
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