Students and a parent testified about the difficulties of non-English-speaking students in the Chicago Public School system during the first day of hearings about overturning the 1980 consent decree governing the schools’ desegregation efforts.

Thursday’s testimony focused on the experiences of bilingual students, which has become the main issue of opponents seeking to maintain the consent decree as the demographics of the schools have changed. The consent decree requires Chicago to demonstrate to the court that it is not discriminating against Hispanic and black children.

Omar Nunez, 18, told the court his concern when he first moved to the United States from Mexico five years ago was “Who is going to teach me here?” He said when he entered an elementary school it was unequipped to teach English as a Second Language students.

Now a senior at Social Justice High School in Little Village, Nunez was the first to testify in opposition to the district’s attempt to end the nearly three-decade federal court supervision.

“English was and is my second language. I wouldn’t be writing or speaking this well if it wasn’t for the desegregation decree,” Stephanie Abeja, 15, a sophomore at Social Justice, testified before U.S. District Court Judge Charles Kocoras.

Though Kocoras said “there is no resemblance today to the facts and circumstances giving rise to the initial decree,” many students maintained that their school is not diverse enough.

This is the first time the court has heard testimony directly from students and parents rather than through lawyers, said Ricardo Meza, a Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund lawyer working on the case, and “most of the folks in the courtroom were moved.”

Norma Emeterio, 18, a senior at Social Justice, testified she was assigned to be Nunez’s tutor during class when he first moved to America. Students taking off their learning time to teach other students was a common thread in the testimony, along with complaints of scarce resources, overcrowding and under-qualified teachers.

“I keep thinking about how my friends would like a better education,” Alejandro Hernandez, 18, testified. He said he felt lucky to be at Social Justice High School and not dealing with the issues his friends at other schools encounter on a daily basis.

“No student should ever feel lucky in order to obtain an education,” said Meza.

The school system has sought to overturn the consent decree on two previous occasions, in 2004 and 2006, with little success.

The hearing is set to continue for up to four days, during which the CPS and the Department of Justice will present expert witnesses. The hearings are at the Dirksen Federal Building, 219 S. Dearborn St.