Tucson High student objects to hate speech at assembly

A 17-year-old Tucson High School senior made national news Thursday night after she objected to a TUSD assembly on immigration.

Mon-Yee Fung told Bill O'Reilly her story Thursday night.

Next week she plans to tell state lawmakers.

What Fung objects to is a speech last Monday by Dolores Huerta, cofounder of the United Farm Workers Union.

Tucson High's Mecha club invited Huerta to speak about immigration reform, and, like 800 other TUSD students, Fung voluntarily went to hear what she had to say.

Mon-Yee Fung says, "It was just basically a hate speech. She said just downright 'Republicans hate Mexicans,' and then she repeated it again, 'Republicans hate Mexicans,' and, right away, that really, really hurt me."

Fung, who is president of Tucson High's Teenage Republican Club, says she asked to leave the assembly, but teachers told her no.

Fung says, "I have really, really good friends, really, really close friends that are Mexicans and I love them a whole lot."

Fung thinks TUSD should have presented both sides of the illegal-immigration debate.

TUSD Superintendent Roger Pfeuffer says, "The speech by Mrs. Huerta contained some, I think, regrettable issues of stereotyping groups and we are not pleased with that and it's not the kind of thing we want to teach our students."

But Pfueffer insists the district is being fair and presenting all sides.

He says, "On our web site we have lesson plans, we have articles from newspapers across the country showing both sides of the issue."

Next Thursday, State Representative Jonathan Paton, a Republican from Tucson, plans to hold a hearing about the speech.

Paton says, "We don't want our high schools to turn into what our universities have been, which is basically a place of nothing but political advocacy."