According to Democracy Now.org, Sean Arce, the head of the Tucson school district’s banned Mexican American Studies program, was dismissed this week, amid vocal protests from dozens of supporters.

Tucson’s Mexican American Studies program has been under attack following the passage of a bill which prohibits schools from offering ethnic studies courses. Arce maintains he was fired because he spoke out against what he saw as a discriminatory law targeting Mexican Americans and Latinos. “I, along with many others, stood up and [saw] this law as unconstitutional,” Arce says. “And because we stood up, the district has retaliated.”