CTA Member Human Rights Award
Awarded to an individual who has promoted human and civil rights in areas such as building meaningful family, school and community partnerships and helping eradicate discrimination at their school site.

Oscar Pinto

8TH GRADE TEACHER
El Monte Elementary Teachers Assn. (EMETA)

Among his many efforts for students, schools and his communities, Oscar Pinto helped create an Ethnic Studies proposal in his district with a more inclusive and diverse curriculum. He recently co-created an Equity and Human rights team in his local to help advocate for it and his school district’s diverse population.

Pinto has specifically focused on providing support to students who are newcomers and those who are part of the LGBTQ+ community by offering a safe space during lunchtime. Students and staff know they can count on him to advocate for social justice, speak up, hold others accountable and be a good friend and listener.

As well as teaching and serving as EMETA secretary, Pinto is an advocate and organizer for environmental justice. He works with various organizations such as the Clean Air Coalition to combat environmental racism in La Puente and surrounding communities. He has held workshops and spoken at public hearings to voice his concerns against a toxic battery smelter in Industry, CA, educating communities nearby about lead, arsenic and the dangers of other heavy metals and ways people can mitigate exposure or remediate contaminated soil.

For the past few years, he has volunteered to collect soil samples from houses within a two-mile radius of the smelter. These and other samples are transported to and tested at a University of Southern California lab; results are mailed back to each resident. (Pinto helped secure a $10,000 grant to pay for testing.) Pinto then clearly and concisely communicates with community members about their results and what they can do if their soil is contaminated.

Pinto ties his environmental and social justice work with the work he does as a union leader and classroom teacher. He promotes critical thinking in his classroom and encourages students to be advocates for their community and to be agents of social change — and models this important work himself.