Cyndi Loza

Backlash against Jessie Beck Elementary School’s dual-language immersion program made its teacher Gisela Daniel change her look.

“I don’t want to look like the woman in the paper anymore,” said Daniel, who said she tried to change her appearance because of various anti-immigrant and “aggressive” comments on media Web sites and on the radio. “It’s like when you take something jokingly but seriously … because it’s like you don’t believe that there are people like that, but that’s how they think and they might act on it.”

School officials held a meeting on Wednesday to address what they called “misinformation” that has been circulated about the immersion program, which provides instruction in Spanish and English to a class of Beck kindergartners.

The meeting was held in response to information in an anonymous letter that was circulated last week to school officials and parents. The letter stated the immersion program is partly to blame for some of the school’s overcrowding and dual-teacher classes.

A petition with about 60 signatures was also sent Friday to Superintendent Paul Dugan addressing those issues and asking for additional space for the school through the addition of a modular building.

At the meeting, Beck principal Kristen Brown said the students in the program are all zoned for Beck, and they did not add to the enrollment of the school. She said Beck is under populated with an enrollment of 522 and a student capacity of 592.

The meeting served as an outlet for parents to share their opinions about the program.

“There’s no way my child is going to share (a class) with the immersion class,” said William Thomas, 36, of Reno, whose son is in second grade at Beck. “That’s stupid … We’re here in the U.S.(They) should be learning in our native tongue.”

Thomas said if the students in the program were to share a room with his son, he’d pull him out of school.

Derek Vogel, 43, of Reno said there is a lot fear surrounding the program among parents and questions the motives fueling their concerns.

“What is really fueling this fear? If it’s really a concern that their child is going to be pushed into a larger classroom, that’s one thing, but if they don’t want their child ‘contaminated’ by a Spanish-speaking kid, that’s a completely different issue,” Vogel said. “Really, what it comes down to is racism at the end of the day.”