As the push to involve Hindi as an official language in FUSD mounts, tensions came to a rise during FUSD’s November 15 Board Meeting. During public comment, close to 50 students and parents got up to push for the integration of Hindi. From connecting with family, to understanding a language important to them, many reasons were provided for the integration. However, the district hasn’t provided an official stance on integration policy as of late, though they have accepted its possibility.
Students present at the board meeting had differing conclusions on the approach used to introduce the idea. An anonymous student from American High School stated, “I think that there were definitely some valid points brought up during the board meeting regarding Hindi. I do think that Hindi should be taught due to its wide prevalence and the large number of Indian people in Fremont.” This reason, in fact, was stated repeatedly as students and parents lined up to voice their thoughts on the district’s handling of the integration.
This opinion, however, was not universally accepted throughout the meeting. Another student, who preferred to remain anonymous but was present at the meeting, claimed, “The process to add a class is incredibly long, and expecting immediate results incredibly underestimates the necessary processes for board decisions.” This sentiment was echoed by Superintendent CJ Cammack, who stated that the Board has “already been in the exploration process for Hindi as an official language at school.” It was also stated throughout the meeting that the process for integration would take time, and wouldn’t be an immediate inclusion of the language in classrooms, as some parents and students assumed. Finally, Superintendent Cammack brought up a number of points towards the end of the meeting, talking about the necessity of lowering the required classes/teachers for other languages due to a number of those students pushing towards Hindi classes. In summary, it was stated that integration would not be a quick process, and would take resources away from other, already existing, UC A-G approved languages like Spanish and French.
Tensions continue to rise, as was displayed in the sea of students and parents clamoring for Hindi’s integration in schools across the district. However, many of these requests were dampened by the long process it would take to integrate a new language, as stated by Superintendent Cammack during the meeting. It remains to be seen whether Hindi will finally be accepted as an official language throughout the district.
