Posted on 01/12/2007 4:23:27 AM PST by indcons
ST. PAUL, Minn. - A school bus driver let Rachel Armstrong's three children board the bus Monday morning, but he warned them that he wouldn't give them a ride home that afternoon, nor could they ever ride his route again.
The problem, according to Armstrong: her 10-year-old twin girls and 8-year-old son speak English. She says school administrators told her the route had been designated for non-English speakers only.
Armstrong says she had to leave work early on Wednesday to pick up her stranded kids from Phalen Lake Elementary School.
St. Paul schools spokeswoman Dayna Kennedy acknowledged Thursday that school officials handled the situation poorly, but said language had nothing to do with the incident. The reason Armstrong's children were ineligible to ride the bus was that they lived outside the school's attendance area, she said.
"It is our responsibility to ensure the safety of these kids, and we made a mistake," Kennedy said. "The kids should have gotten home that day."
The bus route was meant to serve a language academy at Phalen Lake for children learning English.
The Armstrongs said they learned that when they moved last year, they landed outside of Phalen's attendance area.
Viva La Aztlan!
The non-English speaking kids were mostly likely Hmong. There are three times as many Hmong as Spanish speaking kids. And, there is a sizeable number of non-English speaking Somalis.
Unfortunately, when you read the story the accusation doesn't hold up.
Yep...at present, it is probably Hmong and terrorists (Somalis).
If La Raza has its way, this will be the template for the rest of the country.
"St. Paul schools spokeswoman Dayna Kennedy acknowledged Thursday that school officials handled the situation poorly, but said language had nothing to do with the incident."
Wonder why the school official issued a half-apology.
This doesn't article doesn't seem to have anything to do with segregation, I'm not seeing how you're connecting the dots between this and La Raza.
But I'll give a half take back on my comment. I guess the mother can complain they run a bus that far out for this language program, but not for regular students.
I'm betting the non English speaking kids finally got a real English lesson. How do they learn English if no one at their school speaks it?
This event may grow additional legs of it's own. This was a Black child that was denied transportation. Blacks get up in arms, and rightfully so, when this stuff happens. I hope they can make a difference will all our support.
Could someone post contact info on those responsible for this insanity? Also, I suspect that an enterprising attorney for say Landmark Legal could file in Federal court, charging violation of Civil Rights Act, etc. The legal underpinning of this silliness harkens back to Plessy v Ferguson's "Separate but Equal", overturned quite appropriately in 1954's Brown v Board of Ed, Topeka.
If you could post phone numbers, email addies, etc of the governing state and local agencies, they could be Freeped.
Does this help?
Phalen Lake Elementary
1089 Cypress St
St Paul, MN 55106
Grades: K-6
Principal: Jan Hopke-Almer
Hours: 8:20 a.m. - 2:50 p.m.
Phone: (651) 293-8935
Fax: 651-293-8978
Web Site: http://phalen.spps.org
Jan Hopke-Almer, Principal (jan.hopke-almer@spps.org)
Catherine Rich, Assistant Principal (catherine.rich@spps.org)
They are still trying to figure out who has the deep pockets here and if a correct ruling may adversely affect their racist agendas down the road.
This story has nothing to do with segregating by race or language. It's about parents having special permission to use a bus to get their kid to their non-assigned school, and then losing that privilege.
When a school system offers a specialty program, they will often run a special bus throughout the school system to "feeder points" to transport the kids that need the specialty program. They usually can't afford to let just anybody use the bus, or else it would fill up and they would have to pay for ANOTHER bus.
You are right, the school's error was that they enforced their new policy in the middle of the day, stranding the kid at SCHOOL. Bad form, and they realise it.
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