Former Garfield High School teacher Jaime Escalante, shown during a visit to East Los Angeles College in December 2008, is battling cancer. Former students and cast members from the 1988 movie ‘Stand and Deliver,’ which was about Escalante and his calculus students at Garfield, are holding fundraising drives to help with his medical costs. (Photo by Mario Villegas)
Story Created:
Mar 4, 2010 at 11:04 AM PST
Story Updated:
Mar 4, 2010 at 11:04 AM PST
EAST LOS ANGELES — Jaime Escalante, who gained international renown for his work teaching advanced math to unprepared students at Garfield High School, is fighting cancer, but his family has run out of money to pay for treatments, it was reported Monday.
Vanessa Marquez, who appeared in “Stand and Deliver,” the 1988 film that dramatized Escalante’s experience at Garfield High, said that so far $5,000 has been raised toward the $30,000 needed by the family.
Actor Edward James Olmos, who played Escalante in the movie, made an appeal on his Web site on Escalante’s behalf.
“Jaime didn’t just teach math,” Olmos said. “Like all great teachers, he changed lives. Gang members became aerospace engineers. Kids who had spent their youth convinced their lives didn’t matter discovered they were leaders.
“Now, [Jaime] needs our help. He is seriously ill, and the treatment he needs has depleted all the funds his family can raise. They did not want to ask for help, but we took it upon ourselves to get the word out … to make his final days as comfortable as possible and maybe even give him a chance to beat the cancer that has afflicted him.”
The cast members of “Stand and Deliver” are putting together a fundraiser. Contributions can be sent to “Friends of Jaime,” c/o FASE, 236 W. Mountain St., Suite 105, Pasadena, 91103. Those who wish to make a contribution by credit card can call (626) 793-5300.
Garfield High will be collecting donations for Escalante Saturday at the school, 5101 E. Sixth St., from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Escalante taught at Garfield from 1974 to 1991. He taught the school’s first calculus class in 1979 with only five students. Two passed the advanced placement calculus test by the end of the year. Two years later, the class had grown to 15 students, with 14 passing the advanced placement test.
In 1982, 18 students passed the advanced placement test, but the Educational Testing Service, which administered the test, challenged the scores when all 18 students missed the same problem on the test.
Escalante protested when the service ordered the students to retake the test, saying the service was taking advantage of minority students from a poor area of East Los Angeles.
Twelve students ended up retaking and passing the test. The controversy led to a book “Escalante: The Best Teacher in America” by Jay Mathews, the Los Angeles bureau chief for the Washington Post at the time. The book was followed by “Stand in Deliver,” which chronicled the controversy.
Escalante once described the movie as “90 percent truth, 10 percent drama.”
The Bolivian-born Escalante is 80 years old.
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