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| Kids kicked off a bus for speaking English (yes in the US) |
| 2007-01-10 |
| Hat tip - Drudge 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. Ok now imagine if they were refused for speaking spanish - the ACLU would be in an uproar. 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. |
| Posted by:CrazyFool |
| #7 "How the heck are they going to blend in if the school insists on keeping them apart from the rest of their classmates?" How can the teachers unions get their cut if these people learn to speak english? lol! |
| Posted by: Mark E. 2007-01-10 17:20 |
| #6 I'm unclear as to how English-speaking peers would hinder the Hmong kids' study of English. |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2007-01-10 13:47 |
| #5 R: I thought that the Hmong were a legacy from VietNam. That war ended officially 26 March 73, over 33 years ago. Where do elementary school children speaking only Hmong come from? They fought on our side during the Vietnam War. The Communists persecuted the heck out of them after the war was over. Many ended up in Thai refugee camps. We recently started taking them in. This segregation is nuts, though. How the heck are they going to blend in if the school insists on keeping them apart from the rest of their classmates? |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2007-01-10 12:47 |
| #4 we still have heaps of Hmong living in Western Washington |
| Posted by: Themble Whack1520 2007-01-10 12:13 |
| #3 I think we recently allowed a group that have been in Thai-border refugee camps since the war. If I remember right, the Thai won't let them into Thailand, but they can't go back to Vietnam. If I remember wrong, I apologize. |
| Posted by: Adriane 2007-01-10 11:56 |
| #2 spontaneous welfare-state generations |
| Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) 2007-01-10 11:49 |
| #1 I thought that the Hmong were a legacy from VietNam. That war ended officially 26 March 73, over 33 years ago. Where do elementary school children speaking only Hmong come from? |
| Posted by: RWV 2007-01-10 11:43 |