Saturday, December 29, 2012

A Night of Regret: The Arrest of TUSD's Former MAS Director Brings Contrition, Discussion on Gender Violence

Posted By on Sat, Dec 29, 2012 at 10:52 PM

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There are several ways to look at the Sunday, Dec. 9, arrest of Tucson Unified School District's former Mexican-American Studies director and co-founder, Sean Arce, who now faces charges for allegedly assaulting his ex-wife and for vandalism and trespassing.

There's the view from rabid critics of the district's beleaguered MAS department, who see state Attorney General Tom Horne a hero and buy into a mythology that the classes are anti-American. To them, Arce's arrest somehow exposes the dark underbelly of the program.

But there's also another view, from people who have supported the program and its return to TUSD but see Arce's arrest as an example of issues that need to be addressed within a movement that formed in response to Horne’s anti-MAS law, as well as SB 1070.

In the days after Arce's arrest, the Tucson Weekly talked to dozens of people who were responding to the news, and to gossip that at times grew out of control. While many expressed heartbreak for someone they respect, others said they worried about how Arce’s arrest could fuel further attacks against MAS.

Here’s what happened the night of Saturday, Dec. 8 and early morning of Sunday, Dec. 9, according to a Tucson Police Department report obtained by the Weekly. Police said they responded to what was described as a break-in in progress. One witness interviewed said he heard banging at his neighbor's house, went to investigate and saw two broken windows and a man he didn't know bleeding from his right hand and standing inside the house. When the man saw the witness, he left the house, and the neighbor followed him and saw the man get into a white sedan.

More information about what occurred that night came from a police interview with Arce's ex-wife, who told police she was at La Cocina the night of Saturday, Dec. 8, when Arce showed up, grabbed her arm and pulled her away from a table where she sat with friends. After several patrons separated the couple, she left the bar and restaurant with friends and drove home.

A friend who was leaving the ex-wife's house saw Arce in the neighborhood, according to the ex-wife's interview, and called to tell her that Arce was driving toward the house. After she got off the phone, Arce’s ex-wife heard banging against a sliding glass door and she left with friends through the garage. They drove off and she called the police.

The report noted that when police arrived at the house, they found the front door and garage door open, and two broken windows, one of them with no glass left in the frame. But no one was inside. Blood found on glass from a broken window and on the front door was collected for evidence, according to the report.

Arce's ex-wife told police that she thought he was staying at the JW Marriott Starr Pass Resort & Spa to celebrate his birthday. Police arrested Arce at his Starr Pass room and he was transported to the Pima County Jail and booked on suspicion of domestic violence/assault, domestic violence/criminal damage and domestic violence/trespassing.

The week after the arrest, some MAS supporters noted a palpable silence about the arrest and wondered if others hoped news of the alleged incidents would go away. However, Arce had reportedly discussed his arrest with members of UNIDOS, the student-led group that helped bring national attention to MAS and the fight to save the program when it took over a TUSD school board meeting last spring.

The Weekly reached out to Arce's ex-wife for comment, but response came from Tucson attorney Richard Martinez, the attorney representing former MAS teachers who filed a complaint in U.S. District court challenging the legality of the anti-MAS law. The plaintiffs are awaiting a decision from federal Judge A. Wallace Tashima.

Martinez, who is representing Arce on the Dec. 9 domestic violence charges, is also representing Arce and former MAS teacher Jose Gonzalez in a defamation lawsuit filed last year by former TUSD teacher John Ward, who now works for the state Department of Education.

When Martinez called the Weekly, he said he had counseled his client not to discuss what occurred on the night of Dec. 8 and 9. But on Thursday, Dec. 27, I heard again from Martinez, who said he wanted to set up an interview with Arce.

During that interview, Arce said he wanted to clear up “a lot of misinformation that is out there.

“Nonetheless, I own up to what I did and I regret bringing this attention to my kids. They are first and foremost on my mind. … I am a father who loves my children more than anything. No one has a right to disrespect their mother. ... my conduct was inexcusable.”

Arce confirmed that he met with students from UNIDOS after his arrest.

“It was important because I let down a lot of people in the community. I have dedicated my life to youth advocacy, and try to provide an example and be a model for the youth. I think it's important to own up to what is true,” he said.

Arce was fired last year when the TUSD governing board voted to not renew his contract as director of MAS. The meeting that night was packed with MAS supporters who pleaded with the board to keep Arce in his position. Shortly after his dismissal, Arce received the 2012 Myles Horton Award for Teaching People’s History from the Zinn Education Project.

Arce told the Weekly the past four years have been particularly difficult for him. In addition to the fight for MAS classes, there was the fight for his job, a divorce and losing his home. The stress, he said, has at times been unbearable.

“I've been consumed with my work. Changes have taken place rapidly—employment, home, loss of the family unit, marriage as I once knew it, those are a lot of challenges for one person to face. Still, what took place is inexcusable and I should have sought help earlier,” said Arce, who has now sought counseling.

Martinez, who attended the interview with Arce, said there is a pretrial hearing in Tucson City Court on Monday, Jan. 8. Martinez also said that when people look at the police report, they should consider that sometimes what's written isn't always accurate, and that there were no eyewitnesses to what occurred at the house.

Usually the victim, in this case Arce's ex-wife, has “an important voice in where the case goes,” Martinez said, but neither he nor Arce would say whether Arce's ex-wife intends to drop the domestic violence/assault charge.
Martinez said he believes there are people in the community with an agenda to discredit Arce, even within the community that supports MAS.

Shortly after Arce's arrest, an online blog surfaced called Malintzine (malintzine.wordpress.com). The first entry is titled “Dear Sean” and is a letter directed at Arce.

“I’m writing to you with your daughter in mind. With my daughter and all our children in mind,” the post began.

“You’ve been nationally and internationally recognized and occupy the center of the Chicano Movement in Tucson — the civil rights battle for Mexican American studies, banned books and the legal fight against Arizona’s HB 2281, all while perpetuating problematic internalized sexism that has been the root of our trauma over the last several years. You have said yourself, you’re a 'machismo' a 'macho' and your behavior with your partner, partners, our young men and women reflect that. You wear your male privilege shamelessly, more so when you’re drinking.”

Kim Dominguez, founding member and manager of the UA Department of Mexican American Studies’ Social Justice Education Project and a supporter of the MAS classes, told the Weekly she's familiar with the blog and described Malintzine as a collective of women and “queer people of color,” many from Tucson and several from other parts of the country, who are interested in MAS and gender issues.

Dominguez has been a constant voice on gender and sexual violence issues within the local movement sparked by the anti-MAS law and SB 1070, also known as the “Papers, please” law. She said it's important for members of the movement to speak out, even though she understands how hard that can be when they are also dealing with trauma inflicted by the likes of Horne and others.

One issue that's important to recognize, according to Dominguez, is that many young women and men may have experienced domestic and sexual violence in their homes, and that there needs to be better leadership within the movement to address these issues.

“We know that in social history that often, (troubled) men get highlighted as the leaders of these movements, while there are underdogs (that carry the movement),” Dominguez said, adding that those underdogs are most often women.

Dominguez said she has already heard an earful from those worried about a story on Arce surfacing in the newspapers, and the fact that she is willing to discuss the problem. Dominguez said she wants to work on gender and domestic violence issues with young people immediately, and she's planning a series of sexual and gender violence workshops with Tucson activist and organizer Raúl Alcaraz Ochoa.

The Malintzine blog, she said, received 500 views in its first week. There is a lot, she said, that local women in the movement want to say, but they’ve felt they haven’t had a voice. Women, Dominguez said, have felt dismissed and left out of the planning, organizing and leadership. A women's group has formed in response to such concerns and continues to work on strengthening women's voices in the movement.

“There is worry that talking about this perpetuates a narrative of young brown men and machismo. I understand that,” Dominguez said. “But at this point, there needs to be change.”

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