State Board of Education member Connie Morris has once again fanned controversy with her comments about illegal immigrants.

Earlier this month she proposed changes to the state’s school curriculum standards, drawing fire from education advocates, Hispanics and a Lawrence filmmaker who has petitioned the FBI to see whether a complaint about him to the agency by Morris has put his name on any lists of suspicious persons.

“It’s typical Connie Morris … using the education of our children to grind her personal ideological ax,” said John Martellaro, board president of Kansas Families United for Public Education Inc.

But Morris defended her recent proposed additions to the state social science standards. To proposed recommendations that students be taught about immigration, Morris suggested that students also be taught about illegal immigrants and what they do to crime rates, education costs and language barriers.

“It’s facts; it’s history,” Morris said, defending her proposed changes to the standards. “Our children should not be subjected to inaccurate, one-sided dogma.”

On Dec. 14, the state board adopted one of several Morris suggestions about education relating to illegal immigrants, but in a version that toned down her original language, making it more general and removing her proposal’s negative connotations.

Some Morris critics are still upset with comments she made about illegal immigrants while campaigning for her board seat — she is from St. Francis, in northwest Kansas — and her latest proposal revived those concerns about her.

Elias Garcia, the executive director of the Kansas Hispanic and Latino American Affairs Commission, called Morris’ recently proposed curriculum standards “unfortunate” and “negative.”

“They’re divisive subjects,” Garcia said. “It imposes a sense of superiority from one class to another. It pits one group against another.”

Kansas State Board of Education member Connie Morris' proposed curriculum changes concerning illegal immigrants have drawn criticism from education advocates and Hispanic groups. At right is board member Kenneth Willard of Hutchinson.

Martellaro, who is not Hispanic, also said Morris’ proposal was unfair.

The way Hispanics are “singled out for her scorn is an insult to true American values,” he said. “It’s very clear by implication that’s who she’s talking about. She was clever enough to leave out the word (Hispanic), but she’s not fooling anybody.”

Denying privileges

During her campaign two years ago, Morris said Kansas shouldn’t pay for educating children of people working here illegally. That was despite a 1982 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that all children are entitled to public education, regardless of immigration status.

After the election, it was reported that Morris sent an e-mail to an anti-immigration group in which she said Garden City’s then-Mayor Tim Cruz was an “admitted past illegal immigrant.”

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Cruz, however, was born in Garden City and his parents also were born in the United States. Morris later said she had misunderstood a conversation with Cruz. She has said she was sorry about her mistake.

“I can say that I have been poor, I’ve lived in a school bus, I’ve lived without electricity and running water,” Morris said of life as a young adult in the Appalachian mountains. “But at no time in my situation was it ever excusable for me to break the law.”

Morris told the Journal-World she did not think it was appropriate for elementary and middle school students to learn about illegal immigration unless it was to counterbalance instruction about legal immigration.

If children in those grades study immigration, they also should learn about illegal immigration and its problems, she said.

“It’s important that the story of immigration is told factually,” Morris said. “That was my approach — to get in the costs of illegal immigration.”

Lawrence filmmaker

Meanwhile, Lawrence filmmaker Ranjit Arab said he is still waiting to hear whether the FBI had added him to any lists of suspicious people after Morris reported him to the agency.

Morris said she reported Arab because he was too aggressive seeking an interview with her.

At issue are Arab’s attempts to interview Morris last year when he and two other Kansas University students were making the documentary “El Jardin,” which is Spanish for “The Garden.” The film won the best documentary award at the KAN Film Festival in June.

The film highlighted Morris’ views on children of illegal immigrants in public schools. And it focused on Garden City, its waves of immigrants and their reception in the schools.

Morris told Harris News Service reporter Sarah Kessinger in an article published in October that she had reported Arab to the FBI “to ward off any possible stalking or terroristic behavior.”

That prompted Arab to file paperwork with the FBI to see whether he was on any lists of suspicious people. He said he didn’t know when he would hear back from the agency. Arab said he was shocked when he heard she had reported him to the FBI.

“I approached her several times over the course of six months in a professional manner, seeking a proper interview with her. She declined at every turn,” he said.

Morris told the Journal-World that the FBI told her it could do nothing about Arab but that she should let the agency know if she had further problems. She said Arab’s efforts to interview her were “frightening” and “upsetting.”

She said she had experienced “some trouble from other people” about her views on illegal immigration and that she was advised to report any aggressive behavior to the FBI.

Morris declined to say who had given her this advice. She also declined to elaborate on who the “other people” were and what they had done.