Common Sense Is So 1950
By Mitch Berg
St. Paul school kid kicked off a bus for speaking 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.
There was an explanation, of course; it was a bus assigned to all-Spanish and all-Hmong schools.
Ah. It wasn’t a mistake – it was part of an official policy of balkanization!
More on school bureacracy later…
January 11th, 2007 at 12:09 pm
My question to the St. Paul school district (as I posted last night) is this.
If these kids are not supposed to be on this bus, why didn’t someone say something SOONER? Based on all the stories, it sounds like these kids have been riding the bus since the start of school in September. Also, if they were not supposed to be on this bus, how did they know that this particular bus went to Lake Phalen Elementary?
Lastly, why didn’t any of the so called gatekeepers ask these questions? Why was it left to a suburban soccer mom to do so?
LL
January 11th, 2007 at 12:38 pm
Great, CNN front page:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/EDUCATION/01/11/kicked.off.bus.ap/index.html?eref=rss_topstories
It addresses some of Lady’s questions:
“It turns out the bus route was meant to serve one of the district’s three language academies. Phalen Lake’s academy is for Hmong kids learning English, and the academies all have separate bus routes to keep their students together.
The district decided to begin enforcing the separate routes Monday — but didn’t tell the Armstrong family.””
“”The Armstrongs also learned that when they moved last year, they landed outside of Phalen’s attendance area. Armstrong said she was told her kids would have to transfer if they wanted to keep riding a bus, “or I’d have to find my own way to get them to school.”””
—
Flash
Centrisity.com
January 11th, 2007 at 1:14 pm
I thought segregation was bad…
I’m so confused
January 11th, 2007 at 2:08 pm
Thanks Flash but that still doesn’t resolve the (to me) central question. How did the Armstrong’s know that particular bus went to Phalen Lake school.
When the Junior Logician starts school, every year, we get one letter from the school telling us who his teachers are and what class room (etc) and another from the bus company telling us which bus he rides and what time it picks up from where. I would assume (and that certainly could be where I go wrong here) that Mrs. Armstrong got some sort of a similar letter from Phalen Lake. IF she did, then she certainly has grounds for action against the school, I would think.
LL
January 11th, 2007 at 5:43 pm
Sounds like “separate but equal” to me.