Every “welcoming” community that is either in bed now with the federal refugee resettlement program or contemplating snuggling up, should pay close attention! Your state and local taxpayers are on the hook for interpreters every time an immigrant has a problem—in the school system, the health department and in the criminal justice system, most anywhere! Just yesterday we wrote about Yer and Zit or was it Zar and Yar in Denver who need a Burmese interpreter to face the court on possible homicide charges. Who do you think pays for that—you do (not Washington)!
I do feel sorry for Manchester because whenever they first got into the refugee welcoming business they were either snookered or not told a thing about it until the refugees arrived. Mayor Gatsas, to his great credit, has tried to slow the flow to the over-loaded city, but it may be too late—they already have 81 languages spoken in the school district!
Here is the latest from the Union Leader (hat tip: Paul). No Dinka interpreter, sorry Manchester, that violent student is all yours!
MANCHESTER — District officials entered into an agreement with the federal Office for Civil Rights to return a student to school who had been slated for an expulsion hearing for assaulting another student.
The move has drawn strong criticism from at least two members of the school board’s Conduct Committee, which had voted unanimously to hold an expedited expulsion hearing for the student.
“The committee was blind-sided. This action does not support safety in our schools,” Ward 2 board member Debra Gagnon Langton, longtime chairman of the Conduct Committee, said at a Nov. 24 meeting. “I really think we need to vote on this. This is a violation of the public trust.”
Superintendent Debra Livingston replied that any discussion of the matter should take place in nonpublic session since it involved student privacy.
The complaint rests on the allegation that the district did not provide a Dinka interpreter to communicate to the student or his parents concerning his suspension.
Dinka is spoken by people from South Sudan.
[….]
As for the issue of language interpreters in the schools, Livingston said, “There are 81 languages spoken in the district. It’s very difficult to find someone who can translate all documents. What we’re trying to do is provide translation to as many students as possible.”
[….]
This isn’t the first time the district has drawn the attention of the OCR. Earlier this year, the civil rights agency entered an agreement with the district under which it would take concrete steps to boost the enrollment of black and Hispanic students in advanced high school courses. [Whether they deserve to be in those classes or not?—ed]
In August 2012, Mayor Ted Gatsas asked local representatives of the OCR to leave the City Hall chamber during a presentation in which they claimed that discrimination was a problem for minority students in the district. Gatsas accused the group of making unfounded and inflammatory claims.
We have a huge archive on Manchester, NH, click here to read the sad tale of an overloaded city trying to extricate itself from the feds and the entrenched contractors.
Remember that kerfuffle over the summer regarding nearby Dover, NH. That was about spreading some of Manchester’s overload to surrounding small towns and cities. Dover temporarily dodged a bullet when a public outcry erupted.
Where is Mark Steyn? Wouldn’t he have fun with the idea of a school district having to have a ‘Dinka man’ on call?