Jose de Wit
SUN Staff Writer
Española School District teachers who thought attending presidential candidate Barack Obama’s speech Sept. 18 in Española would be a good civics lesson for their students got a different message from Superintendent David Cockerham.
Citing a policy that prohibits District employees from “using school time for political purposes,” Cockerham required four teachers to use vacation time when they took students to Obama’s rally.
Initially, Cockerham opposed allowing students to attend the event at all. In a memo sent a day before the event, he cited the same policy to issue a blanket ban on student participation.
“(The policy) also prohibits the use of students participating in political activities,” Cockerham wrote. “Please do not plan any student field trips to attend any political rally.”
Board Vice President Floyd Archuleta, a Democratic politician, said he understood Cockerham’s concerns in allowing students to attend the rally.
“It’s a historical event,” Archuleta said. “But it was a political campaign event. The purpose of it was to get votes.”
Student safety and transportation were other concerns, Archuleta said. The District did donate several school buses free of charge that were used to cordon off the Española Plaza from traffic on Paseo de Oñate. Still, Archuleta said he would have supported teachers taking students to the rally, as long as the event somehow tied into the social studies curriculum.
Archuleta said he questioned Cockerham on whether his decision was based on the superintendent’s political affiliation. Cockerham is an outspoken Republican who has an autographed photo of President George W. Bush on his office desk. Archuleta said he would like to believe Cockerham would have behaved the same way if the rally’s speaker had been presidential candidate John McCain (R-AZ).
The policy came close to derailing the performance of Española Valley High School’s mariachi band, Mariachi Sol del Valle, at the campaign event.
Cockerham was initially opposed to the idea, on the grounds that District policy prohibits employees, such as mariachi sponsor Alfonso Trujillo, from participating in political activities while on the clock. It was only after parents went on the radio and Cockerham spoke with Obama campaign representatives that the superintendent gave the band permission to perform, provided Trujillo used vacation time to attend the event.
Board member Leonard Valerio, also a Democrat, called the arrangement “just plain wrong.”
“These teachers were not there as political supporters. They were there as teachers,” Valerio said. “This was a unique educational opportunity for our kids. (Cockerham) should not have made (teachers) take leave for the event.”
Eventually, Cockerham abandoned altogether his ban on student attendance, but did not send out another memo telling teachers of his decision.
“It was too late when we decided that,” Cockerham said.
That meant teachers who otherwise might have organized field trips to the rally wound up staying in their classrooms. Española Valley High School senior Tiara Lavalsit attended the rally on her own. She said her social studies teacher, Sandra Roney, wanted to take her students to hear Obama, but abandoned that plan after receiving Cockerham’s memo. Roney could not be reached for comment.
Students from Rita Abeyta’s Española Elementary sixth-grade class did make the trip. They said their teacher prefaced the field trip with lessons on how elections work.
The unusual arrangement with the teachers raises the question of who was responsible for students during the event. Because the teachers were off the District clock, they were not there as District employees.
“It’s a good question,” Cockerham said. “I hadn’t thought of that.”
Cockerham said he also sent out a letter saying students whose parents allowed them to attend the rally individually would be excused from class. By and large, students attending Obama’s event were there by themselves, or with older relatives.
San Juan Elementary student Jasmine Cain missed class to see Obama with her aunt.
“She wanted to come,” Segovia said. “And it’s not just for the politics, even though we’re all Democrats. It’s going to be historical, him coming here.”