Texas schools, businesses grapple with Cesar Chavez allegations

AUSTIN, Texas - Education leaders across the state continue to grapple with a new Texas Education Agency order to modify lessons related to Cesar Chavez. 

The directive comes alongside a push in Austin to get rid of murals and streets connected to the late labor activist.

Cesar Chavez sexual abuse allegations

The backstory:

Controversy continues to surround Cesar Chavez a week after a New York Times report revealed allegations of sexual assault and abuse towards women and girls throughout his political career. 

As people and organizations continue to distance themselves from him, the Texas Education Agency laid out their latest expectations in the classroom.

In a directive issued Monday, the TEA instructed schools to "cancel or otherwise redirect" any planned events tied to Chavez. Teachers were also told to "eliminate, modify and otherwise alter" lessons, activities and materials to remove references to Chavez.

"We shouldn’t be protecting anyone that has harmed women or children or others in such a way," says Zeph Capo, the president of the Texas AFT, which represents over 60,000 educators and staff across the state. 

While he agrees that Chavez’s role in the education system must be examined, he wonders how school districts will go about making those changes and who decides what will replace the curriculum.

"It's not an issue of is there the ability to be able to do it, to make the adjustments to the curriculum. It's generally a question of how, you know. Who is doing that? Who has an opportunity to weigh in? What does it get replaced with? Because the last thing that we should be doing is writing out other people's stories that deserve and need to be told."

Currently, Texas students are required to learn about Chavez in 5th grade and U.S. history, but while Chavez is being removed from lesson plans, Capo doesn’t want the message and mission of the American farmers movement to be tarnished in the classroom due to the actions of Cesar.

"How is that work going to be replaced? How are the stories that need to be told of the movement itself going to be reflected moving forward?" asked Capo, who believes that the TEA is overstepping its boundaries. "I think that the big brother from Austin kind of weighing in here is taking away the ability of the individual communities to have this conversation."

Part of the new order from the TEA also instructs schools to cancel events tied to Cesar Chavez. 

Austin ISD has announced they will celebrate labor leader Dolores Huerta on March 31, who also claimed to be sexually assaulted when working alongside Cesar Chavez.

Dig deeper:

The latest instruction from the TEA comes as cities across the country continue to separate themselves from Chavez, including Austin. 

City leaders and advocates have been pushing for the renaming of Cesar Chavez Street as well as the removal of multiple murals depicting him.

"The very day that the news came out, I received phone calls, texts, and I was like, wow, I didn't know," says Maria Luisa Mendoza. 

She’s the longtime owner of Mr. Natural, a vegetarian restaurant located in east Austin. For close to 10 years, one of her buildings has had a mural on the side of it, which Cesar Chavez depicted at the top.

"People comment if I'm going to keep it, but I will be removing it," says Maria. "I respect whatever everybody wants to do, but I don't want people to feel hurt by us keeping it."

Maria says she’ll rely on fundraising, as it’s expected to cost several thousand dollars to remove Chavez from the mural.