2018 Taylor & Francis. The crisis I will describe in this narrative took place during my first year as an assistant professor at a research institution in Southern California. I was fortunate to have found a few schools that allowed me to implement a culturally adapted Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) program to their Spanish-speaking English Language Learners (ELLs). One of the schools I worked with was in a small town less than 100 miles East of Los Angeles. The school district was predominately Hispanic (60% of students identified as Latino and 25% ELLs [California Department of Education, 2016]). I was very excited about this partnership. At the time, I was conducting a study that evaluated the effectiveness of a culturally adapted 12 lesson SEL program for Latino ELLs enrolled in 6th-12th grade. In the fall of that year, I met with many educators to explain my study/intervention. I often shared my own experiences as a former ELL student and why I felt the need to teach English Language Learners SEL and coping skills. I was welcomed right away by many teachers and ELL directors. At one high school, the ELL coordinator used to co-teach the ELL class for new students (ELL I) with a vibrant and friendly teacher. The teacher, named Anna for this narrative, shared that she had been an ELL as she was an immigrant from Russia, and understood the social-emotional needs of her students. The ELL coordinator was a bilingual Mexican-American young professional, named Rocio for the purposes of this narrative. Rocio was very passionate and determined to give her students the best educational experiences possible. They were both enthusiastic to have their students be part of my study and seemed more than happy to help in any way they could.
