Retired astronaut to visit Middleton staff, students following costume controversy

Retired NASA astronaut Jose Hernandez will visit three schools in the Middleton School District next week to offer “sensitivity training” to teachers and speak with students following a controversy last fall where Middleton Heights Elementary staff dressed up as a Mexican border wall.

Hernandez will speak April 2 at Mill Creek Elementary (8:15-9:45 a.m.), Middleton Heights Elementary (10-11:30 a.m.) and Purple Sage Elementary (12:45 -2:15 p.m.).

A photo of staff members dressed for Halloween as Mexicans, with others posed behind a cardboard cutout of a border wall that says “Make America Great Again,” went viral on Nov. 2, 2018. Superintendent Josh Middleton released a statement that day offering an apology.

The following day, 14 staff members were placed on paid administrative leave. They were reinstated Nov. 7.

Hernandez voiced his concern over the Idaho costume photographs at the time via his Twitter account, saying, “the school district and it’s[sic] teachers are in dire need of sensitivity training. I am serious about going on this goodwill mission to Idaho.”

“I think I will call the Middleton School District & offer to tell my story of reaching the American dream. Only requirement is that those teachers sit in the front row! What do you say Superintendant [sic] Dr. Josh Middleton? It’s free sensitivity training! I will pay my way!!” he wrote in one tweet.

Hernandez was the 12th Latino astronaut at NASA and was formerly a migrant farmworker, according to an email statement from Maritza Huerta of The Twins Public Relations firm. He now serves as a motivational speaker.

“Teachers not only have a responsibility to provide students with a strong education, but they also serve as role models that help develop who students will become long after they leave the classroom,” Huerta wrote. “We hope Mr. Hernandez’s story inspires students to dream big. It’s important for all young people, particularly minorities, to learn about leaders who look like them and had to overcome similar obstacles.”

The controversy at Middleton strikes a chord with Hernandez, as it reminds him of his own desire for “the American Dream” when he was growing up. In an email to the Statesman, Hernandez said it took him 12 tries to become a NASA astronaut. But with the right game plan and attitude, he said, it is possible to achieve anything.

“This is important to do because we need to show kids that people who look like them, speak like them and came from a similar socio-economic upbringing achieved the American dream,” Hernandez said in the email. “This, I strongly believe, has an empowering effect, especially when I share the recipe to succeed that my father gave to me as a 10-year-old when I first told him I wanted to be an astronaut. He told me ... that I can be anything I wanted to be if I follow his five-ingredient recipe, which is to: 1) Define my goal 2) Recognize how far I am from this goal 3) Draw a road map so I know how I can get there 4) Get myself an education and 5) work hard. I add a sixth ingredient, which is to never give up.”

This story was originally published March 30, 2019 at 4:58 PM.