Friday afternoon was the first of a two-day forum where legislators, local representatives, teachers and parents discussed what problems plague the El Paso Independent School District and what they blame for setting the stage for a district-wide cheating scandal.

The forum, Social Justice in Public Education, was organized by the Texas Teachers Association, which has a partnership with El Paso's Teachers Association. 

"It's time now to start the healing process, and it's time for educators and parents and students and community people to come together and really look at what were the underlying issues that caused that happen to happen," said Norma De La Rosa, president of El Paso's Teachers Association.

Bowie High School's cafeteria was filled with people. It is at Bowie High School where the district-wide cheating scandal began.

De La Rosa says the point of the forum was to talk about funding and standardized testing, along with the area's limited-English-speaking students, which she said were at the root of the cheating scheme happening. 

However, some in attendance say it's not only students who need to be vindicated.

"I want to know if there is going to be justice for those employees that were victims, like myself, who were terminated or let go because we stood for the right things," said Maria Perez, who once worked for EPISD.

"At the point when this happened there was no protection for whistle blowers. Professional like myself that reported irregularities and went to the board....there's even a type when I went before the board for my grievance and they just didn't want to investigate. I asked for an investigation and I said ' administration is not telling you everything." said Perez.