The school system in Aurora, Colorado, is striving to accommodate more than 3,000 new students mostly from Venezuela and Colombia. Teachers have been helping them by translating vocabulary and handing out written instructions in Spanish. Outside the classrooms, it’s a different story.
Alisson Ramírez, right, listens to her social studies teacher during class Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024, in Aurora, Colo.
When Aurora’s mayor spread unfounded claims of Venezuelan gangs taking over an apartment complex there, former president and current GOP candidate Donald Trump magnified the claims at his campaign rallies, calling Aurora a “war zone.” Immigrants are “poisoning” schools in Aurora and elsewhere with disease, he has said. “They don’t even speak English.”
Gabriela Ramírez, right, and her boyfriend Ronexi Bocaranda, left, listen as mechanic diagnoses issues with Gabriela's car Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024, in Aurora, Colo. Of course, it’s not always clear to Alisson’s family that they live in a discrete city called Aurora, with its own government and policies that differ from those of neighboring Denver and other suburbs.
Keeping out dangerous people is important to Torres. The whole reason her family left Venezuela was to escape lawlessness and violence. They didn’t want it to follow them here. Dylan Martínez-Ramírez plays a game on his mother's cell phone outside their apartment Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024, in Aurora, Colo.
But the sudden arrival of so many students from Venezuela and Colombia who didn’t speak English caught some Aurora schools off guard. Before, a teacher in the 38,000-student school system might have had one or two newcomer students in her class. Now, teachers in some schools have as many as 10, or a third of their classroom roster.
Dylan Martínez-Ramírez, left, sounds out a sentence as instructed by Culturally & Linguistically Diverse Education teacher Sarah Pearlstein at Del Mar Academy, Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024, in Aurora, Colo. But the approach has helped Alisson feel more at ease. On her first day of school, her social studies teacher, a bald man with tattooed forearms and a gruff teaching persona, didn’t translate anything or use Spanish in his presentation. “I thought about sitting there and not saying anything,” Alisson remembers. “But then I thought, ‘I’m here to learn.’”She and a friend approached the teacher during class. Now Jake Emerson is one of her favorite teachers.
So far, there appears to be little public pushback in the district against this approach. It generally requires more work for teachers, who have to translate materials or their own speech in real time. Alisson Ramírez, second from right, plays with a classmate during science class Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024, in Aurora, Colo. After spending most of the day in mainstream classes, Alisson and her newcomer peers let loose in a class called Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Education. It’s the only class explicitly designed to help new immigrants speak English.
One boy keeps standing on his chair during the lesson, and Wesdyk stops class at least four times to redirect him. “Por qué hablas?” she asks him. Why are you talking? Another time she says, “I need you to stop.”
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