Associated Press – January 11, 2007:
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: Armstrong’s 10-year-old twin girls and 8-year-old son speak English. The driver told them the route had been designated for non-English speakers only.
Armstrong said Wednesday that she got a call from a worried daughter who didn’t know how she was going to get home. “She thought they had done something wrong,” she said.
So a furious Armstrong had to leave work early to pick up her stranded kids from Phalen Lake Elementary School.
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.
Armstrong said she arrived home Wednesday to find a message from the principal on her answering machine.
“She would prefer them to stay there rather than leave, and she would like to work on some kind of resolution,” Armstrong said.
A simple solution, she said, would be to let her daughters keep riding the bus.
“It’s so simple, but they want to come with the red tape and everything,” she said. “As long as the kids get to school, that should be the main point.”
Missing two important paragraphs:
“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.”
“The Armstrongs said they learned that when they moved last year, they landed outside of Phalen’s attendance area.”
It appears that the kids live outside the School District. For some reason no one was aware of that. There is probably more to this then the School is letting on. Simple solution, transfer the children to the correct district and have that school’s buses pick up the kids.
1. No, you’re not getting it. The bus goes right by their house every morning and every afternoon. They’ve ridden it ever since they moved. The problem is that the school no considers it a bus for only Hmong students.
2. “It appears that the kids live outside the School District.”
IF that’s true then why did the bus stop near the kids house and take them to school?! And why does the school pick up Hmong students in that area?! It’s obviously in the school’s district. Buses simply do not go driving randomly around outside their routes.
What I think happened is that when the school changed their bus route, they forgot about that family.
Ummmm….. there’s more than one school. The bus that comes by those kids house is supposed to go to a different school than those kids attend. A language school for Hmong kids. The story is poorly written, but I believe this all a misunderstanding.
“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.”
5. “Ummmm….. there’s more than one school…”
This is the middle of a school year. Apparently the kids have been riding that bus for quite a while. What changed?
As I’ve said before, I think the school changed the route and forgot about that family. I’m not entirely sure why the school would change a bus route in the middle of a school year, but it appears they did.
Let’s look at the facts. Are the kids students to the school district. Yes. Does a bus from that school district drive by their house. Yes. Could that bus take them to and from school. Yes.
Based on all of those yeses, I think the mom is right. The solution is simple. Let the kids ride the same bus they have been riding. Problem solved.
Why can’t those darned kids just learn another language…
Its not that simple 7 – they have to forget English and then learn Hmong 🙂
Some of this may be the bus contractors as well- our biggest fights with the district here are with the busing company, which will never, ever make any effort to compromise on anything.
I can see the3 district’;s point here, though- if the bus’ eventual destination is a languiage academy, then demanding they pick up her out-of-area kids just because they pass her house may be too much to ask. In any case, I seriously doubt language is the issue, and making this about immigration when it’s really about beauracracy is ridiculous.
reminds me of when I was in elementary school to offset costs the district started charging for a pass to ride the bus, but would still provide bus service to low-income families that could not afford it. the really stoopid part was that the route and stops remained unchanged because each stop still had at least one low-income family, plus no one was purchasing any of the passes. so for all this trouble to offset costs of providing buses, no money was saved and parents were forced to alter their schedules.
#4, On the street I live on, there is the big yellow bus. Then there is the short yellow bus. Then there is another short white bus. Then there is another big yellow bus that passes on the main road on the other side of my house.
Say what?
The first big yellow bus picks up all the regular kids from Kindergarten to Gr. 12. The short yellow bus picks up a handicapped kid around the corner. The white bus picks up a kid that goes to an alternative school. The second big bus is from the next district that buses its special needs kids to our district. Each bus is paid for through separate accounts and may not pick up other kids.
End of story, the kids live outside the district and should change schools.
Daycare is the likely reason they were using the same bus stop after moving. If the children were catching the bus from their daycare, then its unlikely the parents would want to change schools after moving. Note that the mother had to leave work early.
This particular language acadamy is in the school that these kids attended. It wasn’t a seperate place, just part of that school for the kids of that language. These kids have been getting the bus all year, in front of their home, and going to the school they have always attended. I would imagine that because of that fact, the Mother had no clue she now lived outside the district(which is weird, considering that the Humong kids apparently do to), since her kids got on the bus that stopped infront of their home, and ended up in the proper school, I would guess Mom nor anyone else would think her kids were supposedly outside the district. But, since we have to cover our beuracratic asses(the district), her kids will now have to change schools and find a new bus for less than half a year.
Maks sense to me.
#13, don’t let your bleeding heart get in the way of bureaucracy. Damn, that could be some low level clerk’s lively hood your talking about, bucko.
It does sound pretty silly, I agree. But at least here in Indiana, the way the Federal and State governments fund each program, they need the separate buses. If you are 7 yrs old, you can ride the same bus as the 18 yr old High School student. But if you are 12 with the mental age of a 7 yr old, you can’t ride the bus with a High School student. Or you can take classes with a physically disabled student but have to take different buses home.
Why do you guys hate foreigners so much? You need to show some compassion. This kid should be more multicultural and learn to speak Vietnamese.