Kicked off bus for speaking english

[Scatillac]

Imagine sending your kids off to school, but when they get to the bus they are told they can't get on because they speak English.

That's right, English.

It happened to a few children in St. Paul and now the school district is apologizing.

Rachel Armstrong sent her kids to pick up the bus as usual Monday, but after the driver let the kids on, he told them he would not pick them up again. He even said he wouldn't take them home that afternoon.

Armstrong left work early Tuesday, forced to pick up her kids from Phalen Lake Elementary School.

Her twin girls, 10, and her son, 8, were kicked off their regular school bus. They were told by the bus driver the route is for non-English speaking students only.

"I was furious. I was at work and I was just mad." Armstrong said. "I felt like we were being discriminated because we speak English. Just because they speak English, they can't ride the school bus. I mean, this is America, right?"

Administrators at St. Paul Public Schools admit the district made a mistake when it stranded the kids at school Monday.

However, the district points out, that particular bus route serves one of three language academies. The one at Phalen Lake is for Hmong students learning English.

The academies all have separate bus routes to keep its students together.

The district decided to enforce the separate routes beginning Monday, but it did not tell the Armstrong family.

"It is our responsibility to ensure the safety of these kids and we made a mistake. The kids should have gotten home that day," Dayna Kennedy, a public relations representative said.

The district also discovered the Armstrongs no longer live in the Phalen Lake School boundary because they moved last year.

So even though the district apologized, if they want to still go to Phalen, they are going to have to get their own ride.

[Zanchief]

This is completely ridiculous. The kids get on the wrong bus, the driver, who probably doesn't speak very good english (duh) says something to the kids and the entire story is based on taking it out of context. What he should have said is this. "Hey douchebag kids, you're not on my route anymore. Piss off."

He wasn't discriminating against anyone, he was picking up specific kids for a specific school. If the Aryan wonders weren't on his route anymore, why the fuck would he pick them up?

It's great to get all the closet racists all up in arms though.

[Naethyn]

Your avatar is a trip

[Scatillac]

if you live in the country and dont speak english, chances are you dont belong here.

[Zanchief]

And sometimes the not so closet racists.

[Scatillac]

if you are asking me if im racist, the answer is no, but i do have a serious problem with paying taxes to send the children of illegal immigrants to school.

[Zanchief]

if you are asking me if im racist

I don't need to ask.

[Reynaldo]

Everyone's a racist unless you had ancestors who went through oppression. It's ok for those people to be racist since they're just in touch with their culture though, np.

[Snero]

this was a clerical error that resulted in kids getting on the wrong bus, they were identified by the fact that they spoke english but speaking english wasn't the reason they were not allowed to ride home. The title also suggests that they were kicked off in the middle of the route without getting home or to school.

also people who're learning to speak english aren't necessarily illegal immigrants, far from it

[Tacks]

if you are asking me if im racist

I don't need to ask.

You know there can be white people living in america illegally using the system too. It has nothing to do with race.

[Insanityfair]

Sadly, given the area that doesn't suprise me that much. >.<

[Ginzburgh]

Regardless, it should have been communicated differently. The fucking wetback school bus driver shouldn't have told a couple 10 year old kids that they shouldn't be on his bus and he wasn't bringing them home. He should have let his supervisor handle it.

[Zanchief]

It's his job. He's not aloud to just pick up strays.

[Ginzburgh]

Her twin girls, 10, and her son, 8, were kicked off their regular school bus. They were told by the bus driver the route is for non-English speaking students only.

Doesn't sound like strays to me.

If it were a couple spanish speaking 10 year olds and a white bus driver kicked them off for not speaking english, there would be a million man march through the center of st paul.

and

The district decided to enforce the separate routes beginning Monday, but it did not tell the Armstrong family.

And you're advocating seperate buses for seperate races? What's next, seperate bathrooms, water fountains, schools?

[Phlegm]

If the kids were speaking spanish, they would be kicked off that bus also.

[Insanityfair]

Regardless, it should have been communicated differently. The fucking wetback school bus driver shouldn't have told a couple 10 year old kids that they shouldn't be on his bus and he wasn't bringing them home. He should have let his supervisor handle it.

Oh I totally agree, but if he wasn't going to bring them home, he should have told them they were on the wrong bus and had them get off of it in the first place, instead of saying they only get a one way trip perhaps. It sounds like there was a lot of miscommunication in general...no one told the family about the route change...family was in the wrong area to go to that school in the first place...

[Zanchief]

Her twin girls, 10, and her son, 8, were kicked off their regular school bus. They were told by the bus driver the route is for non-English speaking students only.

Doesn't sound like strays to me.

If it were a couple spanish speaking 10 year olds and a white bus driver kicked them off for not speaking english, there would be a million man march through the center of st paul.

No doubt, they'd still be wrong though. This was an administrative error that has been blown out of proportion because it sounds all scary to people who like to rail on immigrants.

And it's pretty clear that it wasn't their regular bus any longer.

The district decided to enforce the separate routes beginning Monday, but it did not tell the Armstrong family.

And you're advocating seperate buses for seperate races? What's next, seperate bathrooms, water fountains, schools?

You don't know they separated them because they speak another language. Maybe they're in different school boards.

You want to get mad at something, get mad at bureaucracy. This isn't a race issue at all.

[Ginzburgh]

You don't know they separated them because they speak another language. Maybe they're in different school boards.

Oh, I must have read this wrong:

They were told by the bus driver the route is for non-English speaking students only.

[Ginzburgh]

IF ONLY ESPERANTO CAUGHT ON!

[Martrae]

However, the district points out, that particular bus route serves one of three language academies. The one at Phalen Lake is for Hmong students learning English.

Guess you missed that nugget, Zan.

On a side note...wasn't it a Hmong guy that flipped out and killed all those hunters?

[Snero]

Her twin girls, 10, and her son, 8, were kicked off their regular school bus. They were told by the bus driver the route is for non-English speaking students only.

Doesn't sound like strays to me.

If it were a couple spanish speaking 10 year olds and a white bus driver kicked them off for not speaking english, there would be a million man march through the center of st paul.

and

The district decided to enforce the separate routes beginning Monday, but it did not tell the Armstrong family.

And you're advocating seperate buses for seperate races? What's next, seperate bathrooms, water fountains, schools?

did you read the thread? this has nothing to do with race, the bus was for people of a certain school, they were on the wrong bus (it seems like, previously, the schools were sharing buses). The bus drivers told them they would no longer be able to take this bus, because they didn't go to the right school. The bus driver explained himself poorly in saying that they wouldn't bet let on because they spoke english but thats the worst of it. He could easily have said, they wouldn't be able to take that bus home because they didn't go to the right school

[Narrock]

[Snero]

to remove race out of it, schools A, B and C have bus routes, for a while they were allowing kids from school B use buses from school A and B from C and so on, then one day the school district decided to enforce a strict policy of not allowing kids from one school to use the bus from another school. A few days later, the bus driver finds out some kids from school A were still taking the bus from school B, and tells them they can't take his bus anymore.

this happened because the schools didn't notify the parents of the change in their policy

[Narrock]

However, the district points out, that particular bus route serves one of three language academies. The one at Phalen Lake is for Hmong students learning English.

Guess you missed that nugget, Zan.

On a side note...wasn't it a Hmong guy that flipped out and killed all those hunters?

Oh, Zan missed something again. There's a shocker.

[Zanchief]

You don't know they separated them because they speak another language. Maybe they're in different school boards.

Oh, I must have read this wrong:

They were told by the bus driver the route is for non-English speaking students only.

That doesn't mean the REASON for splitting the bus was because of ethnicity, so yes, you did read wrong.