Commentary; Posted: 7/14/04

Forest Lake schools, police share conspiracy of silence

Dale Swanson and Jou Kong Thao
Guest Columnists

The collaboration of Forest Lake High School Social Studies teachers in the June 3, 2004 Times article ìShow Hmong People Respect, Not Discriminationî was a regrettably rare example of stepping forward to do the right thing and deserves praise from our entire community. As members of the Forest Lake Human Rights Commission, we believe it is just as important to recognize special positive achievements as it is to reveal the failures in our community respecting human rights.

While the district administration continues to be an obstacle, we are thankful for the support of teachers and community members as we develop initiatives to deal with organizations and their clientele.

While the article may be correct that 5000-7000 of the 27,000 Hmong in Minnesota fought in CIA special forces, this ignores the fact that every single family of those 27,000 people lost family members. The article was importantly wrong in suggesting that the Hmong members of our community ask for or want our ìprotection.î

First, the majority of our Hmong residents are American citizens and should have no more concerns or limitations about exercising their civil rights than any other citizens. Second, our Hmong residents ask for and want only what they or their families fought for. What Americans and their families have fought in all wars for. For freedom, for respect and for the chance to improve the lot of yourself and your family.

One of the great shames of many Americans is not appreciating what America stands for at home and in the eyes of many people in this world. The Hmong people never formed their own nation state or were very concerned about geographic lineage. It is no surprise they became ferocious defenders of a country and people where ancestral birthplaces mean little, but present commitment to the principles of America means everything.

Our informal count suggests there are now 58 families within the Forest Lake School District and more coming. Jou Kong Thao was a nurse and her husband, Bee Thao, an electrician working for the CIA and the American forces in Laos. She came with her husband and children to the United States in 1976; they became United States citizens and moved to Forest Lake for the small town peace and quiet while they commuted to jobs in St. Paul.

As stated in the article, some adults and students in the Forest Lake schools are preventing this and other families from the lives they sought and deserve. Many Hmong students, including the sons of Jou Kong Thao, experience bullying, racial slurs, insults and physical assault on a regular basis. The adults with knowledge of this conduct, both the employees of the school district and the Forest Lake police, share a conspiracy of silence which prevents the victims from enjoying basic human rights and the perpetrators from emerging from their ignorance and habits which are not only illegal, but could cripple future employment and possibilities.

In one recent example, a crowd estimated at 100 students attacked seven Hmong students at Southwest Junior High. Our research indicates the former were yelling ìfight like a manî to the latter. (The former obviously were confused in several regards.) While we are continuing to research this episode, it does not appear to have resulted in any major response by the school district. The Forest Lake Times reported the confrontation as a fight between two students and the Forest Lake police chose not to even prepare an incident report.

Bigotry is a creature of weakness and insecurity and gains strength and inertia from silence. The Hmong have forsaken their property and homes and risked, if not given, their lives to become active citizens of this country and our community. When their children are bullied and harmed in our schools, we must insist that the violence stop and demand that the laws, rules and standards which now exist be applied to and for everyone in a fair and equal manner.

Jou Kong Thao is now working with a school district diversity committee to encourage voluntary change. The human rights commission is now reviewing the existing standards applicable to students and school district employees to determine whether amendments are required to encourage and protect human rights and to identify the sanctions and other remedies available to victims and community members when these standards are violated.

Understanding and appreciating human rights is a journey and not a three-credit course. Few, if any, of us are entitled to any sense of superiority in this regard. It would only take a few candid conversations with the elders in all our families to hear stories of the acts of bigotry directed toward Swedes, Irish, Italians, Germans and the Eastern Europeans.

Bigotry can exist within and between protected classes as witnessed by clashes between Black and Native or Jewish Americans. Much is intentional, much may be inadvertent, but both can be corrected. Example: The June 3 article was accompanied by a Times photograph with an anonymous reference to ìHmong womenî displaying their culture at a school event. Those women have names like anyone else and were Youa Vang Thao and Ploua Vang.

A front page picture one week later on June 10 showed a young Caucasian man dancing and listening to music in Lakeside Park and in contrast acknowledged both his name and his residence as ìKyle Thommes of Hugo.î One step in the human rights journey is to recognize everyone has and deserves to be known by a name and not the general or class references we use when names are unimportant.

Thank you again social studies teachers, and please remain bold and indignant in the cause of human rights.

Writers Dale Swanson and Jou Kong Thao are members of the Forest Lake Human Rights Commission.

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