Victory, apparently. It looks like Lori Phanachone, the Laotian American high school honor student in Iowa who faced suspension for refusing to take the school district's mandatory English language exam, will no longer be required to take the test: English-language learner classification lifted for Storm Lake honor student.
Lori, a senior who ranks seventh in her class and has a 3.9 grade point average, refused to take the English Language Development Assessment several times last month, saying the test was demeaning and racist. The exam was mandatory for Lori because she indicated on her school registration that English was not the first language spoke in her home.
But Lori was born in California and lived in New York before moving to Iowa with her family in 2006. She's never been enrolled in any English Language Learning or English as a Second Language program. There was absolutely no reason for her take the damn test.
And now she doesn't have to. The school district has made changes in the curriculum requiremens, including a reclassification in the English Language Learners program. Hopefully, this also means that the discipline that was imposed upon her will also be lifted. And let's hope they reconsider the guidelines for who they require to take the English assessment.
It already looks like Lori's being reinstated into the National Honor Society: SL student cut, reinstated to National Honor Society after language test protest. Big props to Khin Mai Aung of AALDEF. And big, big props to Lori Phanachone. I think we can all learn from her example.
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