Easier way to contribute!

Many thanks and huge hugs to Leeann, who continues to maintain Fran's credit union account in Oregon and see that Fran receives your donations for her Education Fund.

Dear Friends,

Fran is now hooked up to her own PayPal account, so you can send contributions to her directly! Her Paypal email is:

franady_virgo@hotmail.com

If you are one of her few regular contributors and would like to change the method you have been using to contribute directly to Fran through PayPal, we'd appreciate a heads up. Otherwise, for now, feel free to continue as you have been doing. 

. . . and many thanks!

Amazing Fran!

Dear Friends,

There is so much to report, but I will begin with a recent challenge Fran faced, and her subsequent trials in overcoming it.

Last semester, in her microbiology class, her instructor announced an exam date. Fran studied nonstop for it, as she always does. She took the exam, and was informed a few days later that the teacher had LOST two exams. Hers was one of them. Let me just stop here and say that in my entire career as a student, up until my Master's Degree, and then in my long career as a teacher, I never heard of a teacher or professor LOSING an exam paper. This man has done it many times, apparently.

The exam was rescheduled for the following week for the two students whose papers were lost.  Fran took the exam, and a few days later, the final grades for all of her classes were posted on the class website. She got a "0" for the class in question.

Christmas vacation started immediately.

Fran didn't have one. She went to her school every weekday for 10 days, spending between 4 and 8 hours trying to track down the teacher, an administrator who would listen to her, even the director of the school. She would wait outside rooms where he was supposedly in conference or a meeting, but he never came out. She called him repeatedly. She was told his mother had died, and he had to leave town. He was running away from her.

Eventually she found out there was an on-campus organization to help students, but it wasn't up and running.

Meanwhile she heard from other students, and even another teacher, that this man was known for doing things like this, but he was untouchable, because he belonged to the political clique that runs the school Two years ago students if they did not attend a PRI rally (the most corrupt party in Mexico) they would be graded down one level. None of this discouraged Fran from continuing to insist on her rights. She knows she is one of the best students in the school. How could she have gotten a 0 for that class?

Finally she wrote a letter about what had happened, and all the measures she had taken to try and get the teacher and the administration to listen to her, and solve her problem. She threatened to take it to an outside civil rights agency. She gave a copy to the director of the school, to the teacher, and kept a copy for herself.

Finally, with only two days of her vacation left, the teacher started making conciliatory noises. He apologized to her and said he would rectify the situation. At this writing, we don't know if he will, but it looks promising. It only took Fran about 650 hours to get him to move.

But she did it. And I can't tell you how rare this is, for any Mexican, especially any student, and more especially a young indigenous woman, to stand up for their life. 

There is one fly in the ointment. It turns out that this teacher is in charge of the specialty Fran chose, and will be her instructor for 3 more classes before she graduates. (This instructor, by the way, does not even have his master's degree; he bribed his way into this position). Fran has been warned by another teacher to keep her eyes open. He may try to undermine her in the future.

I am not the only one that warned her to reevaluate, perhaps consider changing her specialty (from plants to animals) but she doesn't want to do that. She feels confident. She has already signed up for next semester's classes, including a class with this instructor. She also knows that at this point, if she wants to change her specialty, it would take weeks and weeks of bureaucratic grind, in which she would miss classes, and possibly be forced to skip the entire semester. You can't imagine the chaos of the educational system here. So, fingers crossed.

But our Fran is mastering the art of fighting back.