Question about forced ESL

Hi guys! So I had an experience back in 2001 that I had a few questions about. I was born to a Spanish and English speaking mother and an English speaking father. My mother taught me Spanish since I was very little but I learned fluent English at the age of 4 to communicate with my dad. I learned to read and write in English (never Spanish until I was in middle school). When I was in Kindergarten or 1st grade (I forget which) I was placed into advanced reading and had to fill out a form about languages I spoke.

I was fully bilingual and mentioned that I spoke Spanish with my mom and English with my dad. They grilled me on the information in English and I kept telling them I mainly spoke English at home. However, they put me into the ESL program without informing my mother. I told her later that they had switched my class.

Well my mom raised hell and contacted the superintendent asking why I was in ESL if I was already reading at an advanced level and could very clearly communicate in fluent English. They said that because I was bilingual I would have to finish the semester in ESL and take a test to prove my English fluency. My mom was super upset so she threatened a lawsuit and eventually they shredded the form saying i spoke Spanish and instructed her to fill out that i only spoke English.

My question is - how common is this? At the end the receptionist mentioned to my mom that the school made more money the more kids they put into ESL. However, speaking to some professionals in Special Ed, they said this is protocol. I feel like discouraging students from being bilingual seems a bit discriminatory, but i was more wondering if this was just an isolated incident.

I just spoke to a Cuban American friend who had the exact same experience, so I'm a bit miffed that this is policy...

Edit: this was in Florida

Submitted October 10, 2020 at 11:34AM by AnoiaDearheart https://ift.tt/2SHZ4ST