Posted on 01/09/2007 9:06:29 PM PST by Nachum
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, public relations representative.
The district also discovered the Armstrongs no longer live in the Phalen Lake School boundary because they moved last year.
So even thought the district apologized, if they want to still go to Phalen, they are going to have to get their own ride.
Back in the 80s many parents insisted on English only in the home so that their children would be real American, but the parents spoke only pidgin English. I heard some of the results of that and argued strongly with parents and got the priest(also Vietnamese) in the parish on my side about it and they come around. I had noticed that the parents with no English at all who spoke only Viet in the home had kids who spoke with the accent they learned in 1st grade and the ones whose parents insisted on English at home sounded like foreigners. That particular accent in the girls makes for a beautiful sound to the English in a class with a refined Birmingham, Ala. tone, but doesn't do a thing for the boys, just makes them sound like ignerant furriners.
I'm guessing ole Mom sent 'em to their original pickup location. Buses don't go outside the school zone.
Ok, I am streaching here, so the bus driver knew they were piped in the the original pick up spot. Or did he just go by language (profiling)... I am leaning the second version and the article doesn't really clarify that question.
Then why are the non-English speakers entitled to the same bus ride? Do they not also live outside the district?
LOL!
Oh, brother. Diversity is nuttier than ever.
Not indicated in the story. I'm guessing the Hmong kids live in the district, and Complaining Mom had her kids try to get on the bus at where they used to live. (Which is also not indicated in the story, but completely consistent with some parents I know that think the rules don't apply to them.)
And I'm guessing that the district runs special bus routes outside of their boundaries for their "Language Centers". If the buses are going from pick up point A to school B, and all the riders are enrolled at School B, I don't see what the big deal is, unless there is no room on the bus. If the buses are available and already running the route, there should be no reason not to let bonafied students use that resource. This smacks of bureaucratic rules dicking with common sense.
Now that you mention it . . . I don't know how old you are or where you're from, but when I was a kid, on certain afternoons the Catholic children would catch a special bus that would take them to CCD (later renamed CCE) - some kind of Catholic continuing ed, I think.
I have no idea where CCD took place, but I am sure it was not on district property. The bus was district, so it's entirely possible the CCD route took it outside a regular route.
A wall of separation between GUMMINT and education!!!! No more PS 666!!!
And they are ALL, each and every one, a product of your most cherished "Public School System."
Case closed!!!
Folks, if you love your children you will push for the elimination of the NEA and teach your children yourself.
JMHO!
And they are ALL, each and every one, a product of your most cherished "Public School System." NOT true but what IS true is that the VAST majority of our military are products of that system probably 95% or more.
I would like to see you try and teach the advanced courses offered in most public schools across the nation.
Public schooling is the first step a nation takes to becoming literate and wealthy. It will NEVER go away. It has served our nation very well over the last 160-70 years as any unbiased observer can easily see.
Even when the students are from families of morons it does a good job and when the families are not morons it does an excellent job.
Ideological blinders which produce statements like "Folks, if you love your children you will push for the elimination of the NEA and teach your children yourself..."
produce little of value in understanding issues.
I have seen very few people even here capable of teaching anything above elementary or rudimentary subjects.
Both English and non-English speakers attend Phalen Lake Elementary. So why do they need separate buses? The school dist. claims it's due to 'miscommunication' with the offended family and that they couldn't bus them bucause they moved and are now outside district boundaries.The language academies are inside the schools that take ALL kids.So why did the driver tell them this? Apparently English had nothing to do with the story and it's unknown what the driver said. The TV station later changed their headline.
The mom claims she the driver and principal told her it was for "non-english" only and she never got an apology from anyone nor mention of any address issues. Everyone is 'CYA mode' now.
Seems like a combo of poor reporting,school errors, and mom not keeping the school up to date on their move (due to fire).
All I know is I'm glad I left St.Paul and moved north.
My wife and I do. With three children at home we have a 17 year old boy that is already in the second semester of his sophomore year in college. We have a 16 year old daughter that has just received her GED and on Monday will be beginning the first semester of her first year in college. Both are in the honors program. Our 14 year old will be starting college in the fall a little over a year before receiving his GED because we have taught him at home.
As I have said, if people love their children they will pressure their representatives to close down the NEA and begin to teach their children themselves.
As for your "95%" figure. I'd like to see your source. Pulling figures out of your @#$ doesn't carry much credibility with me. Sorry!
And lets also not forget that most of our Military personnel come from families of middle to upper middle class families and above. Coming from that type of environment those solders are more inclined to have come out of districts not affected by the hordes of Marxists that have taken our educational system hostage.
Her in the People's Republic of Kalifornia, we have to pay for bus transportation..300 dollars a year for RT...This is in addition to the taxes we pay.
LOL.
Thanks. I see I have already been called a liberal stooge trying to incite others. Amazing. Thank you for the support.
Let's look at this: Bus route one picks up Football players and Band members and delivers them to schools "A" and "B". Two buses serve this route. Both buses stop at both schools.
The district changes the plan and decides that one bus will pick up only football players and go to school "A". The other bus will pick up only Band members and go only to school "B". A kid, unaware of the change, loads onto the bus as normal. The driver then says:
"Hey, you're a football player? I can't take you to school in fact you can't ride this bus anymore."
The kid was kicked off, not because he was a football player, but because he boarded the band kids bus. There is a difference in that reasoning.
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This whole thing is a big stink because of the poorly written article not making it clear that the kids were on the wrong bus. Why? because they lived out of district and had not been informed.
It is much to do about nothing.
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