Tyrone N. Butts
APE Reporter
Crist wants Lake School Board to pay fine for alleged back-of-the-bus bias
TAVARES -- Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist says a Umatilla Elementary School bus driver discriminated against black students when she made them sit in the back of the bus.
Crist wants the Lake School Board to pay a $10,000 fine and $40,000 in reparation to four families who filed discrimination complaints, plus tighten its policies on discrimination. The bus driver and an aide also should be reprimanded and should apologize to black students, Crist said.</b
Bus drivers and other employees, from the superintendent on down, also would undergo training on state and federal discrimination laws under a proposed settlement agreement between Crist's offic
e an
d the School Board.
School district officia
ls say the bus driver and district were not at fault, but have confirmed that they are in talks toward on out-of court-agreement with Crist.
At issue is whether bus driver Sarah Carpenter was discriminating when she told black youngsters to ``go to the back of the bus, go all the way to the back'' when they boarded for the ride to school Oct. 1, 2001.
Carpenter was asked to double-up on bus routes that day, taking a route for special-education students she was familiar with and adding students from a predominantly black neighborhood.
Carpenter said she wanted to keep the two groups separate because they did not normally ride together.
``I don't believe the bus driver intended to create a racially inequit
able situation,'' said board member Scott Strong.
The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights conducted its own investigation two years ago and found no wrongdoing,<
/b> but Cris
t's office said that investigation was incomplete and flawed.
******
*****
n-ggers don't belong in schools but they do belong in the back of the bus.
T.N.B.
TAVARES -- Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist says a Umatilla Elementary School bus driver discriminated against black students when she made them sit in the back of the bus.
Crist wants the Lake School Board to pay a $10,000 fine and $40,000 in reparation to four families who filed discrimination complaints, plus tighten its policies on discrimination. The bus driver and an aide also should be reprimanded and should apologize to black students, Crist said.</b
Bus drivers and other employees, from the superintendent on down, also would undergo training on state and federal discrimination laws under a proposed settlement agreement between Crist's offic
e an
d the School Board.
School district officia
ls say the bus driver and district were not at fault, but have confirmed that they are in talks toward on out-of court-agreement with Crist.
At issue is whether bus driver Sarah Carpenter was discriminating when she told black youngsters to ``go to the back of the bus, go all the way to the back'' when they boarded for the ride to school Oct. 1, 2001.
Carpenter was asked to double-up on bus routes that day, taking a route for special-education students she was familiar with and adding students from a predominantly black neighborhood.
Carpenter said she wanted to keep the two groups separate because they did not normally ride together.
``I don't believe the bus driver intended to create a racially inequit
able situation,'' said board member Scott Strong.
The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights conducted its own investigation two years ago and found no wrongdoing,<
/b> but Cris
t's office said that investigation was incomplete and flawed.
******
*****
n-ggers don't belong in schools but they do belong in the back of the bus.
T.N.B.