The Lincoln Elementary School District is located in the inner-city Tucson and is one of the oldest district in Arizona. Among its five schools, Madison elementary has been considered one the most successful schools due to the innovations in curriculum and the commitment of its faculty. Madison school has over 600 students with 60% Latinos, 35% White, 10% Black and the 5% other ethnicities. Although the school does not have a bilingual program, the faculty has incorporated the use of Spanish in the classroom to help the Latino students and some teachers have, in the mornings, the student recite the Pledge of the Alliance in English and Spanish. Neither the principal Mrs. Chavez nor the district has a policy on the use of specific language in the classroom, and the faculty, almost half minority and bilingual, has worked together and bilingualism has not been an issue.

Last month, an English Only Proposition that came to Arizona from California was passed by more that 60% of the votes. This proposition has created some disagreements amongst the faculty and parents. A few teachers decided that the Pledge of the Alliance and the rest of the curriculum activities needed to be conducted only in English while other faculty maintained the use of both languages. Some parents approached the principal demanding the use of English only in the classrooms where bilingualism was still taken place and other group of parents was complaining to Mrs. Chavez about the lack of Spanish in their children's classroom where the teachers decided to follow the English only proposition and claiming that their children's rights to an equal education were violated.

Mrs. Chavez immediately met with the Superintendent and his assistants to get an advice but without any results. The Superintendent told Mrs. Chavez that he should request to the School Board a resolution in order to avoid any legal problems. The school board members had their normal meeting and the issue was discussed but no action was taken; some board members were in favor of English only and others were against it. The Board decided to wait and asked the Superintendent to contact the Department of Education to find out if the proposition was going to be enforced in all the schools and all the programs.

The Madison school PTA had a regular meeting with a presentation of the English Only proposition from a group of parents and teachers; this group emphasized the use of English in all the school activities and supported its demand with some nationalistic remarks. After the presentation, another group reacted with a bicultural proposition based on the cultural background of the student population and the tradition of the school and requested the use of both languages. Finally, a third group of parents and teachers rejected both, the English Only and the bicultural propositions, based on the Constitution and demanding the cancellation of the Pledge of the Alliance from the classrooms. The three groups of parents and teachers made a petition to the principal Mrs. Chavez to respond to each of them and demanded a solution. Mrs. Chavez told the PTA that neither the school board nor the Superintendent had decided on the issue and asked them to wait until the next month's meeting.

The school board met again with many parents and faculty from all five schools. The Superintendent reported that the State Superintendent was not clear in the guidelines for the English proposition and that in the mid time the school districts will decide on the issue. The school board decided that the principals of each school would make the decision on the use of the language until they receive more specific guidelines from the State Superintendent's office. The next morning, some parents and faculty from the three opposite groups approached Mrs. Chavez. The principal now should make a decision:

Questions:
1. If she decides to support the English only group, will the other parents move their children to another school and the faculty that supports bilingualism will consider that Mrs. Chavez does not support them?
2. If she decides to support the bilingual parents and faculty, will the other two groups will take their support away from all school activities, including the PTA?
3. If she decides that the Pledge of the Alliance should not be enforced and that it would be up to each teacher to decide the use of the language or languages in the classroom, will the other two groups react against him and they will not support the school activities?