Making Time for a Little Democracy

In an Immigrant-Heavy Arlington High School Program, Students Contending With Classes and Jobs Seek a Voice as Well

A Guatemalan immigrant who arrived alone in Arlington County a few years ago, Ramiro Cortez longs for many things: a high school diploma, the ability to speak English with ease and the means to earn more money than his job as a waiter will ever pay.

For now, though, he will settle for one simple title: student council president.

As the nation's attention was tuned to a historic election, an unexpected display of democracy was playing out among an unlikely group of students at a Northern Virginia school. At the Arlington Mill High School Continuation Program, where many students are immigrants, there had never been a student council. But in the past few months, three students from different Latin American countries worked to change that.

On Tuesday, the student council met formally at the school for the first time.

"I think it's grand," Principal Barbara Thompson said. "Just them coming together with a voice, it's touching and powerful, very powerful."

About 85 percent of students at the school are Latino, and most are older than the average high school student; there is no upper age limit for enrollment. For many of the students, work shifts slam into class schedules, with little time to study and sleep, let alone participate in extracurricular activities.

That's why Thompson was surprised when Cortez and two other students, Delfino Escudero and Jose Luis Pinto, approached her in September with the idea for the council. She said they told her they wanted a more organized voice. She presented the possibility to the faculty and students, and it received unanimous approval.

Fourteen of the school's 350 students have signed up to be members.

"At first, nobody wanted to participate," Cortez, 25, said. "Now, they're all excited."

Cortez came to Arlington at 19, and like most recent immigrants, he took a job wherever he could find one. For him, that was a $5-an-hour position at a restaurant.

"Then I realized education is important to get a better job, a better life," he said, adding that he enrolled in Arlington Mill at 21. "Education, people can't take it from you. It's part of your life."

He plans to graduate with an advanced diploma and is earning credit at Northern Virginia Community College. Still, he said, he's seen the problems his peers face, with many never enrolling in school or dropping out for the promise of a paycheck. Education is too often low on their list of priorities, he said.