|
Mission HS teacher
doing time to protest SOA
by Karen
Zapata
Derrlyn Tom, a bilingual science teacher at Mission High and SFUSD
employee for eight years, didn’t show up for the first day
of school. She’s serving time at Dublin Federal Prison.
Tom got arrested with 86 others for civil disobedience at the
School of Americas (SOA) in Georgia last November. She, along
with some 40 others, is doing time for taking part in that protest.
She started her six-month sentence in June.
Before teaching, she spent time in Latin America. “I witnessed,
first-hand, the devastating effects of U.S. policy in Latin America
and have wanted to do something to stop it,” explains Tom.
“Being a teacher of students who have parents who have immigrated
from Latin America, or themselves being immigrants, my students
began to talk about the activism I was taking around foreign policy
in Latin America. Many students shared stories of torture and
disappearances of family members.” Tom started to learn
more about and take action against the School of the Americas.
Over its 56 years, the SOA has trained over 60,000 Latin American
soldiers in counterinsurgency techniques, sniper training, commando
and psychological warfare, military intelligence and interrogation
tactics. These graduates have used their skills to wage a war
against their own people, according to Tom. Among those targeted
by SOA graduates are educators, union organizers, religious workers,
student leaders, and others who work for the rights of the poor.
Hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans have been tortured, raped,
assassinated, “disappeared,” massacred, and forced
to become refugees by those trained at the SOA.
Although Tom is making a big sacrifice, she feels it is crucial
that she take a stand for what she believes. She has taught her
students to do the same, and hopes to be an example of individuals
speaking out against injustice.
For more information about the work that is being done to close
the School of the Americas, visit soaw.org.
Tom is on UESF’s Executive Board. For more information about
her, email karen_zapata@yahoo.com.
Karen Zapata, on leave from SFUSD, is a UESF Executive Board
member.
|
