The Miami Herald from Miami, Florida • 60

OR MONDAY SEPTEMBER 13 1993 LU THE MIAMI HERALD REGIONAL Asian children learn lessons of life culture Many Asians are tenacious in passing on to their children the traditions of their countries MARICE COHN BAND Miami Herald Staff WANTS TO BE IN CLASS: Nidia Cortez in background has been unable to enroll daughter Claudia 8 in a Dade school Paperwork daunts immigrant children Proving their status can delay entry into Dade County schools By GRACE UM Herald Staff Writer Adam Bienvenu is bored the first day of Japanese language school and the 1 1-year-old boy is sorely missing his Saturday morning cartoons 1 wanna make a he says His mother Etsuko Bienvenu gently chides her oldest son: Sensei He sighs and repeats Sensei I want to make a Bienvenu who is of Japanese-American descent is one of 23 kids ages 5 to 1 8 enrolled in the Florida Nihongo Gakko of Miami a Japanese language school in Coral Gables His mother volunteers as an instructor In this school the kids learn the Japanese language and history and culture On a recent Saturday Adam and his classmates practiced origami the traditional Japanese art of folding paper to form flowers and animals Soon Adam gets into the spirit of the activity He holds up his finished product a paper swan for all to see Asians make up just a little over 1 percent or about 24000 of population Many are tenacious in passing on to their children the language culture and traditions of their countries Unlike Asians in New York and San Francisco who need only take the subway to the Chinatowns the Koreatowns and other Asian communities to get a taste of their homelands Asians have no such places to gather Instead they congregate in churches where many parents discover something in common a fear that once their children forget the home language they lose their Asian identity Through these schools Asian kids learn to speak and write the language of their parents and grandparents Eight-year-old Lisa Rodriguez who is of Japanese-Cuban descent said she enjoys Japanese school want to learn my language so I can communicate with my relatives in Lisa said Sarah Rana 10 has similar sentiments She attends class at the Islamic School of South Dade where she learns the Muslim religion and Urdu the language of Pakistan was not born there I want to learn more about Sarah said As the result of such language schools kids such as Adam Lisa and Sarah learn to take pride in their Asian heritages of all said Brian Kim 18 of Fort Lauderdale need to be PC politically correct and say Korean-American People can tell American because I speak fluent Brian born in Korea came to the United States when he was 1 He and his brother Mark 13 attended Korean School of Greater Miami in North Miami when they were younger There they learned to write the Korean alphabet and read Korean you are a Korean person your responsibility to know and appreciate your culture and where said Brian now a freshman at Amherst College Brian credits his parents for instilling in him an appreciation of Korea and the Korean way Though his parents speak English Brian communicates with them in Korean may not be intelligent Korean but they understand Brian said He said he knows of young Koreans who shun their Asian backgrounds is basically a white society a white country I guess easy to fall into that temptation of thinking I wish I was like But Brian never wished that even when he got into fights with schoolmates who taunted him about his ethnicity comes with the territory when you are in a minority he said way I take it is those people are ignorant They don't know who I am They are prejudging me based on my looks and that is Asian language schools were created not only to cultivate cultural pride in the youths they also provide settings in which Asian children can interact with each other said Jean Tan who heads the Miami Chinese Language School in Coral Gables In the 1992-93 school year of 302000 Dade public school students 3700 just a little over 1 percent are Asian Chinese school you see people with similar Tan said want the kids to see that they are normal There are other people like In Tan's school students learn Mandarin the national language of China and Taiwan and practice writing Chinese characters They are also taught Chinese folk music and dance and the martial arts Children as young as 3 are able to sing simple Chinese songs and recite poems start them Tan said they reach 13 14 very hard to get them Last semester about 40 students ages 3 to 13 enrolled in the Saturday classes want them to be proud of their Tan said have a very rich history We have to show it to the By AMINDA MARQUES GONZALEZ Herald Staff Writer For most Dade County youngsters getting into school means flashing a birth certificate and a power bill and a trip to the doctor For many immigrant children not that simple Despite an 11-year-old Supreme Court case guaranteeing access to public education for all children immigrant students in Dade County are asked to provide extensive documentation of their status These demands can translate into days or even weeks lost from school For a few it has turned into years For Dade County Public Schools that documentation is the only way to infuse the overburdened system with additional cash $85 million a year from the federal government which with state money still cover the cost of educating immigrant children To get the money school officials say they need proof of immigration status And it's easier to get before students enter the system they say trying to reclaim said John Ratliff an attorney with Legal Services of Greater Miami who deals with access to education see no reason why the school shouldn't try to document the numbers in ways that are unobtrusive once the kid is in The documentation practice has recently come under the scrutiny of the Florida Department of Education which in July released a memo to all school districts saying it cannot require any more of immigrant students to enroll than it does of regular students Meanwhile children like 8-year-old Claudia Cortez are caught in the middle Asylum vs registration Since she arrived from Nicaragua in June Claudia's mother Nidia Cortez has been trying to enroll her in school Before summer school Claudia got her vaccinations and a physical Cortez took her to the foreign student registration office in Miami Springs An employee asked for her passport but all Claudia had was a tourist visa Cortez said she was told her daughter attend school unless she waits for her visa to expire in November or files an application for a student visa To get a student visa a parent must prove he or she can financially support the child Before the fall session began an incredulous friend took Claudia to enroll in school She was told the same thing Dade school officials say children like Claudia don't have a right to a public education According to a school board attorney the Supreme Court decision applies only to immigrants not tourists here to stay Each year hundreds of children from and for refugees mostly Haitians and Cubans who arrived in the United States after 1980 Of the $85 million Dade County Public Schools receives each year the bulk of it is for refugees Even when the federal money for immigrant students is added to the state money the district receives for every student enrolled in school the district winds up shelling out an additional $618 for each foreign-born student he said Of 295438 students 25 percent were born outside the United States Requiring children to document their immigration status before enrolling in school can have deleterious consequences down the road say some critics of the Dade process pushing these kids said Reeknians of the Parent Leadership Council at the point where they surface going to have no skills They just realize what Requirements equal roadblock Maria Rosario Vaca 15 is an example She just started ninth grade this year at Sunset High School almost two years after she arrived from Nicaragua The first time she tried to enroll was the summer of 1992 When she called the foreign student registration office she was told she needed a birth certificate She waited nine months for it to arrive from her native country She called the foreign student office to get an appointment They said need a passport Maria who came through Texas said immigration officials there kept her Nicaraguan passport came she said Altogether Maria and her older sister said they called the foreign student registration office more than a dozen times and ran into the same roadblock: She had to have a passport to register The people on the phone never gave their names they said Before school started last week her brother-in-law called and demanded an appointment On a bluff the family said he told them an attorney said they have to provide any such documentation Maria was able to register Stewart can't believe story is no way that this could he said Even so the state has mandated some changes in the foreign-student registration process Among them: Immigrant children will be able to register at their neighborhood schools starting Sept 1 5 instead of being forced to go to the foreign student registration office A centralized registration center is only acceptable if all new students have to register at the same place the state said So going to office for foreign students will be a choice not a requirement as it is now South America were swelling classrooms between November and January during their own break from school said Stewart Bailey district director of attendance and support services Their visit fell between the two dates when the state disburses money for every student enrolled in the district Stewart said district receives no funding for these children yet we have to provide the teachers and ancillary services for he said asking that if you truly want to be a student here be here for one But advocates say many people who come to Dade County on tourist visas aren't here on vacation Like Cortez and her daughter who don't intend to return to Nicaragua They say the political situation in their country is too tenuous and they are applying for political asylum some people the only way they can leave their said Nadine Reckmans head of the Parent Leadership Council an education watchdog group a parent declares going to stay that should be a basis for admitting a Legal interpretations The office of multicultural student language education has asked for a legal opinion from the Education attorney regarding children with tourist visas said program director Lisa Gale The issue of how to handle the enrollment of immigrant schoolchildren turns on the interpretation of the 1982 Supreme Court decision in Plyler vs Doe where the court ruled that undocumented children have the same right to attend public primary and secondary schools as do United States citizens and permanent residents Some believe that ruling prohibits schools from even asking questions about immigration status That is how the Los Angeles school district which has a huge population of immigrant students interprets it In Los Angeles the documentation is collected as the children are routed into federally funded programs once they are in school Dade aggressively seeks the documentation from the outset because it becomes more difficult to get it and therefore the funding once the child is in school Stewart said At the office for foreign student registration where every immigrant student must register for class Stewart said everyone is asked three questions: Do you have a passport? Are you a refugee? Are you an immigrant? The first query is meant to weed out tourists The others are cast out for cash Foreign students costly The federal government provides extra money for legal immigrants people who have permission to enter the country One Lotto ticket sold for $7 million jackpot Associated Press One Florida Lotto ticket sold last week in Panama City Beach gives whoever owns it sole claim to a jackpot estimated at $7 million The game ended late Saturday with the drawing of the six numbers 12-22-31-43-44-49 printed only on the Panhandle ticket There are 162 tickets with Five of the numbers and they are worth $1859 each There are 9876 four-of-six tickets worth $73 each and 190610 three-of-six tickets worth $5 each The grand prize for this Lotto game is estimated at $7 million Jackpot estimates are based on projected ticket sales long-term interest rates funds from any rollovers and a 20-year payout to one winner Pipe dream becomes a nightmare for many homeowners By ALINA MATAS Herald Staff Writer Imagine waking in the middle of the night to a suspicious hissing sound like that of a thin jet of water escaping a fractured pipe And then stepping out of bed onto a wet spongy carpet Not fun said Jesus and Raquel Fanjul two years and $14000 after it happened to them Tracking the hiss Jesus Fanjul found the broken pipe under the kitchen sink and rushed outside to shut off the water pump and stop the gush Then he and Raquel took stock: ruined floors carpets and cabinets was said Raquel Fanjul who lives in the Abner Mobile Home Park in Northwest Dade did more damage than the The disaster is far from unique in the world of poly-butylene pipes a popular plastic plumbing system used in many homes built since the late 1970s This week more than 2000 aggrieved homeowners including more than 800 from Florida will go to court in Harris County Texas charging the makers with selling them a system doomed to fail Attorneys will target Hoechst Cclanese Corp in Chatham NJ and Du Pont in Delaware as the main defendants among several companies named in the lawsuit Once touted as a cheaper easi-er-to-handle alternative to metal pipes polybutylene pipes also known as PB pipes run through an estimated 60 percent of Dade County homes built since the product entered the market Throughout the country the pipes have been installed in an estimated six million to eight million homes Virtually all mobile homes have them Reports of leaks and breaks turned into a stream of consumer lawsuits that began in the mid-1980s and continues Repeatedly jury findings and out-of-court settlements have favored consumers And the debate on the viability of the pipes continues Manufacturers argue that if properly installed polybutylene systems work fine Critics of the system say only a matter of time before the pipes leak or break William Jackson a retired welder had no problems with his plumbing for two years after buying a mobile home in Opa-locka in 1980 Then he fixed a leak About six others followed including one that leaked out all of the hot water causing the heater to bum come home at least three times and found the whole doggone place without said Jackson who found out about track record through a mailing from Michael Campbell a Miami attorney associated with the Texas lawsuit The pipes are approved for use in the South Florida Building Code In 1987 manufacturers were required to redesign the fittings the pieces used to connect pipes together and believed to be the weak point of the system But Campbell and other critics said polybutylene has another problem: Traces of chlorine in the drinking water gradually deteriorate the plastic Pressure from crimping rings also causes tiny fractures in the plastic Hot water running through the pipes expands the perforations and aggravates the problem Many South Florida home-owners don't even know they have polybutylene pipes said Henry Salvador organizer for the Plumbers Local Union and a critic of the PB pipes Many homes have metal on the outside pipes and polybutylene inside the walls the storm a lot of people were surprised they had the pipes inside the Salvador said The Texas lawsuit charges makers of PB pipes with negligence and fraud Chemical manufacturing giants Hoechst Celanese and Du Pont have deep pockets and deep responsibility attorneys said Each produces a resin that gets molded into the plastic pipes raw material probably composes the only biodegradable plumbing system in the said George Fleming of Fleming Hovenkamp Grayson the Houston law firm handling the litigation.