On May 19, Hue Vo and Cindy Vo stood up to speak in front of their graduating class at Terrebonne Parish's Ellender High School. The co-valedictorians, who are cousins, talked about their days at Ellender: the memories they'd made, the hopes they had and the opportunities they'd been afforded as first-generation Vietnamese-Americans. Then, in honor of their parents sitting proudly in the audience, the pair spoke a few words of Vietnamese, translating for the benefit of English-speaking listeners.
Most people would have found it touching to hear the star graduates acknowledging their parents, whose sacrifices and hard work had brought them to that day. Instead, Rickie Pitre, Terrebonne Parish School Board vice chairman, went to the School Board to demand that high school valedictorians be required to give their commencement speeches in English only. As Pitre told WWL-TV on June 29, "I don't like them addressing in a foreign language. They should be in English."
According to the TV report, other parish school officials also now say all commencement speeches should be only in English, and they want a formal rule. A School Board committee that evaluates graduation ceremonies, made up of teachers, principals, students and School Board members, has discussed whether language rules should be added.
The proposal could affect speakers of every language, including Spanish and French. That seems especially ironic, given the French heritage of Terrebonne Parish and so much of the rest of Louisiana. In fact, it's possible that the parents and grandparents of today's School Board members were punished in school for the "crime" of speaking French. That crusade against the mother tongue of many South Louisiana children has resulted in the near-extinction of Cajun French. They of all people should understand that in America, it's possible to be proud of your heritage and a proud American at the same time. In fact, it's one of our strengths.
"Ellender is very diverse. We have many cultures there. They encourage us to be an individual, " Hue Vo told the Houma Daily Courier. "That's why I love Ellender. It helped me be an Asian-American and not be ashamed of it because no one judged me." Hue Vo, like her cousin, plans to attend LSU.
To his credit, Board President Hayes Badeaux, whose first language is French, told the Daily Courier that English shouldn't be mandatory, though he said students should translate, as the Vos did, if they speak another language.
"As long as they start in their language and explain what they said in English afterward so we'll know what they're talking about, " Badeaux said, "that would be the polite thing to do for the rest of the crowd."
And board member Don Duplantis told the Courier, "I don't want each school pigeon-holed into something. I want them to be individual. I wish to God I spoke two languages. They are very fortunate."
Duplantis is right. We live in an increasingly multicultural region and nation, and in a globalizing world where language skills give a boost to commerce. There's both business sense and common sense in Louisiana's Constitution, which recognizes "The right of the people to preserve, foster, and promote their respective historic, linguistic and cultural origins."
Both this constitutional clause and the times we live in should prompt the Terrebonne Parish School Board members who advocate censorship to withdraw their English-only proposal -- for everyone's benefit.
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Minh Nguyen is the executive director of the Vietnamese American Young Leaders Association of New Orleans. Tony Tran is the branch manager of the New Orleans office of Boat People SOS, a national Vietnamese-American organization.