Stolen Education Documentary Showing

Texas State will host a free showing of a documentary Stolen Education with producer Dr. Enrique Aleman Jr., present for discussion.

The College of Education and the Department of Curriculum and Instruction will sponsor a screening of the movie “Stolen Education.” This documentary is a part of the Quetzal Critical Film Series and was made possible due to collaboration of Texas State’s Dr. Charise Pimentel and Dr. Lori Assaf. The presentation will take place on Thursday, January 6 in the Alkek Teaching Theater from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. The brand-new documentary, released in 2013, is about how eight Mexican American students were racially segregated and required to attend three years of first grade in Driscoll, Texas during the 1950s. This led to a federal desegregation court case where the children had to testify. In the film, producer Dr. Enrique Aleman Jr. from the University of Utah visits present-day Driscoll to collect interviews with those children, who were involved in the case. According to Aleman, he hopes after watching the film viewers will learn an untold history of the state as well as the country.

“This is a part of Texas history and a part of U.S.history that is often not talked about. U.S.history and Texas history isn’t a simple nice neat little thing; there’s a lot of complexity to it. That’s why I hope people will learn something about where we come from as a state.”
– Dr. Enrique Aleman

Not only does this film presents historical issues, but it also raises current racial prejudices that take place in educational system. Assistant professor Dr. Pimentel hopes for those who attend the film showing to be intrigued to find out more about those issues.

“I think that often times there is this mentality that we are beyond the issue of race not only in the larger society but in school issues, and this documentary prompts us to realize that not only is race a historical issue but it’s also a current issue that continues to plague our schools.”
– Dr. Charise Pimentel

The presentation of Stolen Education is free and open to the public. After the screening Dr. Aleman will engage with the audience in Q&A session on the film. A short trailer to the film is available for viewing on YouTube..

 Veronika Kondratieva, KTSW News