Dangerous Minds In Tucson: The Banning of Mexican American Studies and Critical Thinking In Arizona

It has been over a year since the president of the school board in the Tucson Unified School District wrapped his gavel on the sound block signifying the end of the Mexican American Studies Department in Tucson. This moment not only stood as a temporary victory for the politics of fear and anti-Latin@ legislation and sentiments in Arizona, but also initiated a literal state takeover of our academic spaces. Subsequently, it ushered in a period of censorship that still chills our schools and teachers to this very day. The fact that this was a program that had proven academic success spanning seven cohorts of Chican@/Latin@ students, performances that TUSD had never before attained with their Chican@/Latin@ population, made the actions of the state officials and TUSD school board even more tragic (Cabrera, Milem, & Marx, 2012; Cambium Learning, 2011; Gomez & Jimenez-Silva, 2012; Sleeter, 2011).