Hispanics protest order that mother speak English to child

By BILL MURPHY

August 22, 2000 Web posted at: 2:05 PM EDT (1805 GMT)

HOUSTON, Texas (The Houston Chronicle) -- Hispanic leaders on Monday demanded a judge rescind and apologize for issuing an order that requires a woman to speak English to her child.

State Rep. Rick Noriega, D-Houston, said state District Judge Lisa Millard's order violated First Amendment free speech rights by ordering Natalia Gonzalez to speak English to her 6-year-old daughter Carolina at home.

This type of "action by Judge Millard is frequently reserved for the kinds of countries that don't have democracy. I think an apology is in order," Noriega said.

Noriega was among the Hispanic leaders who criticized Millard's ruling at a news conference held outside the Family Court Building.

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Joel Salazar, president of the Mexican American Bar Association of Houston, said Millard revealed a bias against Hispanics and the idea that a bilingual education is as good as an education received primarily in English.

"Would this judge order a redneck to speak proper English?" Salazar said.

"The court, we believe, was abusing its discretion," he said.

Millard has come under fire after it was reported last week that she issued the order in spring 1999 following testimony from Carolina's teacher that the child would continue to fall behind unless her parents spoke English to her at home. Her parents signed off on Millard's order, and her father, Ramon Gonzalez, continues to support it.

Carolina's parents are entangled in a custody battle in Millard's family law court.

Natalia Gonzalez has asked that Millard be recused because, the mother's lawyers say, the judge has demonstrated bias by requiring English be spoken in the home and failing to let the mother's witnesses testify on her behalf at a May hearing.

State District Judge Fred Edwards of Montgomery County is expected to rule this week on the motion to recuse Millard.

At the hearing in May, Millard made changes in who has custody of Carolina and extended the order banning Spanish at home. Ramon Gonzalez's lawyer, Tom Conner, said he put in the extension of the no-Spanish requirement when he and Natalia Gonzalez's lawyers drew up the agreed-on order for Millard to sign.

Conner said court-appointed investigators were to have interviewed Carolina and other family members in the coming months before Millard decides on permanent custody arrangements. Conner said he sought to force the parents to talk English to Carolina so they wouldn't speak to her in Spanish and tell her what to say when English-speaking investigators came.

Natalia Gonzalez's lawyers didn't oppose the ban on Spanish in the home in spring 1999 or May, Conner said.

Natalia Gonzalez has disappeared with the child, and she may have fled the country, Conner said.

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