Skit at Maria Carrillo High School in Santa Rosa criticized as racist

Santa Rosa City Schools officials are investigating what some students at Maria Carrillo High School claim was a racist school rally skit that depicts Latino immigrants being rounded up by immigration officials.

According to students who attended the school rally last Friday and a brief video on YouTube, the skit shows students - some of them Latino - dancing to regional Mexican music, or banda norteña. Suddenly, the dancers are interrupted by a siren and immigration enforcement officers. They are forced to show their green cards.

One of the students, presumably playing an undocumented immigrant, tries to run away and is taken down to the floor and arrested.

In the video, students in the audience can be heard yelling, “That’s racist” and “You are racist.”

“It’s something we’re deeply concerned about. … We’re actively investigating,” said Jason Lea, assistant superintendent of human resources for Santa Rosa City Schools.

Lea, who is the district’s public information officer, said officials are concerned about reports that the skit portrayed disrespectful racial themes.

“Our expectation is that all student activities comply with district expectations for respectful behavior,” Lea said. “Santa Rosa City Schools does not condone intolerance or bias of any type.”

A Maria Carrillo faculty member familiar with the performance said the skit was not intended to offend Latinos, but rather to celebrate their culture.

The faculty member, who asked to remain anonymous, said the skit was modified in the days leading up to the rally last week.

The earlier version featured students dancing to a medley of songs, and at the end of the skit an immigration raid nabs all the dancers. The skit’s participants intended the ending to be “funny,” though it was deemed potentially offensive.

The ending was modified so that most of the dancers produce green cards, which is a colloquial term for an identification card showing that an immigrant has legal permanent residency in the United States.

The skit “was absolutely a mistake,” said the faculty member.

Lea, the district spokesman, said the district is investigating the “approval process” behind the performance. Several phone calls to Maria Carrillo administrators were not returned.

Tatiana Carranza, 16, said she was offended by the performance. In response, the 10th-grader and a few other students went around and gathered letters from other students protesting the skit. They presented those complaints to school officials.

“We brought 50 letters from other students who complained about it and felt like they were insulted by the dance,” said Carranza, adding that she participated in a meeting with school officials and Latina students who were in the skit.

“The two girls that are Mexican said that it was OK because they felt proud of having green cards,” said Carranza, who pointed out that she is undocumented.

“I thought that was disrespectful,” she said. “It was rude for them to say that, ’cause people like me don’t have that and we can’t say we have our green cards. … We can’t be like them, showing off our green cards.”

Freshman Leanna Morataya, 15, said there were some non-Latinos in the audience who also were offended.

“A lot of people complained to the office,” she said, adding that school officials told students there was nothing they could do about it because of “freedom of speech.”

Carranza said half the students she’s talked to have complained about the skit and feel the students “went past the limit.”

A video of the skit was uploaded to YouTube by the Broken Record Show, a radio program produced by KBBF, a local bilingual radio station. The radio program interviewed some Maria Carrillo students offended by the performance.

You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @renofish.