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Kids kicked off a bus for speaking English
KSTPTV5.com ^ | 01/09/2007 10:25:54 PM | KSTPTV5.com

Posted on 01/10/2007 8:24:01 AM PST by Havok

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.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; Your Opinion/Questions
KEYWORDS: discrimination; morethanequalrights; press2forchaos; thislandaintourland
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You have to be kidding me....
1 posted on 01/10/2007 8:24:05 AM PST by Havok
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To: Havok

Maybe it's time we implement "zero tolerance" policies for school administrators....?


2 posted on 01/10/2007 8:26:45 AM PST by randog (What the...?!)
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To: Havok

Unbelievable.


3 posted on 01/10/2007 8:27:45 AM PST by samiam1972 (Live simply so that others may simply live!)
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To: Havok

Isn't St. Paul one of the most liberal places between the coasts?

My questions. Why are the government schools enforcing segregation and what benefit is it?


4 posted on 01/10/2007 8:28:06 AM PST by L98Fiero (A fool who'll waste his life, God rest his guts.)
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To: Havok

But then they found out the kids weren't in the district legally themselves. How ironic.


5 posted on 01/10/2007 8:28:46 AM PST by Scothia ( When something important is going on, silence is a lie.)
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To: Havok

We need a man like Jesse Ventura again...


6 posted on 01/10/2007 8:30:00 AM PST by bigbob (2)
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Comment #7 Removed by Moderator

To: L98Fiero

according to what I read, there are 3 separate bus routes with specific languages spoken on each..the bus these kids got on catered to Hmong students..


8 posted on 01/10/2007 8:33:26 AM PST by GeorgiaDawg32 (I'm a Patriot Guard Rider..www.patriotguard.org for info..)
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To: Havok
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.

Then the launguage on the bus should be 100% english. That's how you learn a language best, total immersion.

This school is not for "students learning English". That's a bald faced lie. It's for students who speak Hmong only.

9 posted on 01/10/2007 8:36:05 AM PST by narby
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To: narby

Thank you.............that was exactly my first thought.


10 posted on 01/10/2007 8:37:05 AM PST by Gabz (If we weren't crazy, we'd just all go insane.)
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To: Gabz

Mine too.


11 posted on 01/10/2007 8:40:26 AM PST by pandoraou812 ( zero tolerance and dilligaf?)
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To: Havok

So if that particular bus route is for children "learning to speak English", wouldn't riding with students whose native language is English actually benefit those children?


12 posted on 01/10/2007 8:40:30 AM PST by Wiser now (Happiness is not an absence of problems, but the ability to deal with them.)
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To: randog
Sounds good to me! Sadly, my tolerance level for School Administrators has been zero lately anyway..
13 posted on 01/10/2007 8:46:13 AM PST by alice_in_bubbaland (New Jersey gets the corrupt government it deserves!)
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To: L98Fiero
Isn't St. Paul one of the most liberal places between the coasts?

My questions. Why are the government schools enforcing segregation and what benefit is it?

Liberals are easy to spot:

They judge people by their skin color.
They judge people by their genitalia.
Now they want policies that benefit people based on their native language.

It's these Progressive attitudes (right out of the 19th century) that makes Liberals who they are.

14 posted on 01/10/2007 8:46:29 AM PST by ClearCase_guy (Enoch Powell was right.)
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To: Havok

When will they make English our official language?


15 posted on 01/10/2007 8:51:17 AM PST by stopem (God Bless the U.S.A the Troops who protect her, and their Commander In Chief !)
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To: L98Fiero
Isn't St. Paul one of the most liberal places between the coasts?

I wouldn't go as far as "most", but city hall bureaucrats hate the Easter bunny and poinsettias plants.

16 posted on 01/10/2007 8:52:57 AM PST by Rakkasan1 ((Illegal immigrants are just undocumented friends you haven't met yet!))
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To: Havok

this is not the big story it seems

They wanted to get on the wrong bus to the wrong school...

Nothing to do with what language they spoke, although the bus driver apparently lacked the skills to communicate this effectively

Probably why he does not do computer engineering for a living (like me :D )


17 posted on 01/10/2007 8:53:29 AM PST by Mr. K (Some days even my lucky rocketship underpants don't help...)
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To: narby
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.
Then the launguage on the bus should be 100% english. That's how you learn a language best, total immersion.
This school is not for "students learning English". That's a bald faced lie. It's for students who speak Hmong only.

Yeah, that's what jumped out at me too. If it's for students learning English, then it would be 100% appropriate to speak English.

18 posted on 01/10/2007 8:55:35 AM PST by DouglasKC
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To: ClearCase_guy; All

We all must do our small part to piss these losers off. I'm doing my part by refusing to work for any major corporation that is run by Liberals. They now cry themselves to sleep at night because they can't do #$%t without my help!

(The stupidity in this story is characteristic of them)

What about you folks?


19 posted on 01/10/2007 8:55:35 AM PST by Soothesayer (Birth is murder!)
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To: All

I hope someone someplace up, fired the bus driver and the school administrator who hired him/her. This is America, and here we speak ENGLISH..and if you want to get along, get hired, or do well here, you English, you study American history and learn American traditions, and get to the back of the line when you apply for citizenship!!


20 posted on 01/10/2007 8:58:55 AM PST by cousair
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