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would you : U.S. STUDENTS BARRED FROM BUS FOR SPEAKING ENGLISH. YOUR THOUGHTS?

[+] ballot by mojo

ST. PAUL, Minnesota (AP) -- 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.

School administrators apologized but didn't agree to let Armstrong's children keep riding the bus, as they'd been doing all year.

"It is our responsibility to ensure the safety of these kids and we made a mistake," said Dayna Kennedy, a spokeswoman for the district. "The kids should have gotten home that day."

The Armstrongs also learned that when they moved last year, they landed outside of Phalen's attendance area. Armstrong said she was told her kids would have to transfer if they wanted to keep riding a bus, "or I'd have to find my own way to get them to school."

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."

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

WTF? (comment below)
This is a good thing.
This is a bad thing.

Ballot #111060 : SEE RESULTS

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Submitted by : mojo
Submitted on : Jan 11,2007 2:08:00 pm
ballot title:

U.S. students barred from bus for speaking English. Your thoughts?

ballot number:111060

COMMENTS

oops, I guess I shouldn't have included that last paragraph, since I am clearly in violation

by mojo [+]

Voted : This is a good thing.
Now maybe we will realize how wonderful diversity is.

by _Beelzebubba [+]

Voted : WTF? (comment below)
That's the craziest thing I've ever heard of

by Kiki [+]

Voted : WTF? (comment below)
Let the kids speak whatever they want with their friends and family.

by MrTroche [+]

Voted : WTF? (comment below)
will the ACLU speak up for this girl or will they stay quiet?

by UncleMax [+]

Voted : WTF? (comment below)
We'll keep that under our hats, lady...

As or this, I restate my position on English as a standard language again.

As soon as we *all* speak English, we can make it the standard.

by Truthseeker013 [+]

As formyself, by what I post, you might be led to believe that I'm proficient with the language. In actuuality, English ismy *fourth* language, after math, physics and the beeps spoken by our Grey Friends From On High.

by Truthseeker013 [+]

Voted : This is a bad thing.
The school district is clearly in violation of the right to free speach ammendment of the bill of rights. However it is within the districts right to force the Armstrong chilren to transfer to the school of the district they live in.

It's outrageous that a school distric in America impose language segregation on school buses. Am I missing something here?

by passiveson [+]

Voted : WTF? (comment below)
Stupid people.

by skylab [+]

Voted : WTF? (comment below)
So the girls just assumed it was normal to be on a bus with 28 Hmong all year?

by Applerod [+]

Voted : WTF? (comment below)
Typical bullshit. Imagine if a driver reacted that way if the kid was speaking mexican!

by Guest User from [70.59.46.99] [+]

Voted : WTF? (comment below)
The USA is composed of mostly English, and whatever happened to freedom of speech?! That's bunk.

by PinkPanther123 [+]

They have to offer transportation to English riders too if the non English speaking riders got bus rides in the same route area.

by UncleMax [+]