In February 1996, she organized a parent boycott of the nearby Ninth Street School, saying that campus administrators had refused to move the students into English only classes in violation of district policy to respect parents' wishes. As a result, English-only classes were created for many of the children last fall. It was the latter that apparently pushed USC over the top. Yaden, who has been working with Callaghan since 1995 to design a tutorial program that would involve Spanish-speaking high school students and parents, acknowledged that the escalating political involvement of Las Familias made him increasingly uncomfortable. According to Yaden, he had long envisioned a program that would use Spanish as a bridge to English-language instruction.
Research shows . . .
For children being raised in a Spanish-speaking environment, Spanish is a beginning point. Such notions of an eleventh-hour parting of philosophies particularly infuriated Callaghan.