Bus Driver: English Speakers Can’t Ride
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
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. Ms. Armstrong says she had to leave work early to pick up her stranded kids from school.
St. Paul schools spokeswoman Dayna Kennedy said yesterday that officials handled the situation poorly, but they said language had nothing to do with the incident. The reason that the children were ineligible to ride the bus was that they lived outside the school’s attendance area, she said.
