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Yep just when you thought you had heard everything , out of Rolla, MO comes a story of 2-10yr old students riding home on the school bus practicing American sign language( talking with their hand) and they are told to SHUT UP ! or I will through you both off "MY" bus!
Now for the rest of the story: Seams one of the girls grand mother is comming to visit for the first time and for Thanksgiving , so she wanted to inpress her Grandmother by learning to speak her language, grandmother is a deaf person( Now that a girl with a head on her shoulders) , well it seems the boys on the bus not having seen this before started flashing gang signs ( like what they see on TV ) and calling out to other kids on the bus all the time the girls were just sitting in their seats quietly talking ( Practicing ) .
Well the bus driver had enough of the boys and approched the girls and threatend them if they continued to disrupt his bus, speaking their "Sign language" that he would right them up and throw them off of "HIS" . I guess when you ride on a school bus you loose all of your Constitutional rights ? Maybe this driver ( an older gent) needs to stay after school a few days and catchup on the Constuitution of the U.S. of America and the State of Missouri or even better get a differant job.
In many Missouri school districts the bus driver does, in fact, own the bus. I have no idea if that is the case here, but your assumption that the driver does not own the bus is not warranted on its face. Further, bus drivers are held to a strict standard of accountability for the safety of their passengers, and sometimes perfectly legitimate activities must be stopped to keep other children from behaving like, well, children.
In many Missouri school districts the bus driver does, in fact, own the bus. I have no idea if that is the case here, but your assumption that the driver does not own the bus is not warranted on its face. Further, bus drivers are held to a strict standard of accountability for the safety of their passengers, and sometimes perfectly legitimate activities must be stopped to keep other children from behaving like, well, children.
Excuse me ! Wheather he personally owns the bus in not the issue , the girls were doing nothing wrong , just sitting there talking, have you ever heard of your constitutional right to free speach? What the driver did was say they couldn't excersize their right to talk as others were being alowed to continue to do . It was the boys mimiking them with their gang signs that disrupted the bus . Had he told all the kids to keep quiet it would be differant story. Do you know any deaf ( hearing inpared people ) they make NO noise when talkin , there activites are protected by laws in all 50 states . I can't wait to see the law suit that comes from the bus drivers action in this case . What would the driver have done if one of the girls her self was a deaf person ? He actually stated that they could talk in French, German or Spanish just not in American sign language. He needs to get educated in what he can legally do , and what he should not even try >
Excuse me ! Wheather he personally owns the bus in not the issue , the girls were doing nothing wrong , just sitting there talking, have you ever heard of your constitutional right to free speach? What the driver did was say they couldn't excersize their right to talk as others were being alowed to continue to do . It was the boys mimiking them with their gang signs that disrupted the bus . Had he told all the kids to keep quiet it would be differant story. Do you know any deaf ( hearing inpared people ) they make NO noise when talkin , there activites are protected by laws in all 50 states . I can't wait to see the law suit that comes from the bus drivers action in this case . What would the driver have done if one of the girls her self was a deaf person ? He actually stated that they could talk in French, German or Spanish just not in American sign language. He needs to get educated in what he can legally do , and what he should not even try >
You are not excused.
If it is his bus, it is very much an issue. Your Right to Free Speech is not unlimited - it is only the Government which is prohibited from making or enforcing any law regarding freedom of speech (They do it anyway, but that is another issue). The bus driver may very well not be in the employ of the government at any level. Even if he could be construed as acting in the capacity of government, his actions when he considers safety to be at issue may well trump all other considerations. Constitutionally speaking, this is particularly true when minors are the parties at issue. Doubt this? Have your child call another student or teacher at a public school a racist name and see how fast they get suspended. And see if the Supreme Court will back you when you cry "Free Speech!" (Hint: they will not)
I will back up here and go over this again: I did not just compare the (purported) actions of the girls and their sign language to using racial epithets; I used an extreme example to point out that Constitutional Freedoms of Speech may not be at issue. I have not said the bus driver is not a school employee, I merely point out he may not be. I did not say it was not a School (with capital "S") bus, I only point out it may not be. I did not say that the driver was not out of line, he may well have been so. I simply observed that reports such as these often turn out to be slanted and distorted - sometimes for $ordid ends.
By the way, were you there? Did you actually witness this? How can we be certain that the circumstances were as you have represented? Certainly it would not be the first time that critical facts have been left out of a news report.
Note also that I have nowhere defended the bus driver. I was not there either. He may be a misogynistic ogre that has had a hatred of little girls ever since one slapped him in second grade. I do not know. But I am not yet ready to start boiling the tar and gathering the feathers - and it sounds like you already have the caldron on the fire. It is one thing to point out that an injustice MAY have been done and ask that the circumstances be investigated (by the way, is anyone doing so?), it is quite another if it turns out you have hyped a over-dramatized report.
To be clear again: I have no complaint with you bringing this story to the attention of these forums. My complaint is you acting as judge and jury, and throwing the Constitution around as if you are the last word in Constitutional case law - because frankly you are not.
If it is his bus, it is very much an issue. Your Right to Free Speech is not unlimited - it is only the Government which is prohibited from making or enforcing any law regarding freedom of speech (They do it anyway, but that is another issue). The bus driver may very well not be in the employ of the government at any level. Even if he could be construed as acting in the capacity of government, his actions when he considers safety to be at issue may well trump all other considerations. Constitutionally speaking, this is particularly true when minors are the parties at issue. Doubt this? Have your child call another student or teacher at a public school a racist name and see how fast they get suspended. And see if the Supreme Court will back you when you cry "Free Speech!" (Hint: they will not)
I will back up here and go over this again: I did not just compare the (purported) actions of the girls and their sign language to using racial epithets; I used an extreme example to point out that Constitutional Freedoms of Speech may not be at issue. I have not said the bus driver is not a school employee, I merely point out he may not be. I did not say it was not a School (with capital "S") bus, I only point out it may not be. I did not say that the driver was not out of line, he may well have been so. I simply observed that reports such as these often turn out to be slanted and distorted - sometimes for $ordid ends.
By the way, were you there? Did you actually witness this? How can we be certain that the circumstances were as you have represented? Certainly it would not be the first time that critical facts have been left out of a news report.
Note also that I have nowhere defended the bus driver. I was not there either. He may be a misogynistic ogre that has had a hatred of little girls ever since one slapped him in second grade. I do not know. But I am not yet ready to start boiling the tar and gathering the feathers - and it sounds like you already have the caldron on the fire. It is one thing to point out that an injustice MAY have been done and ask that the circumstances be investigated (by the way, is anyone doing so?), it is quite another if it turns out you have hyped a over-dramatized report.
To be clear again: I have no complaint with you bringing this story to the attention of these forums. My complaint is you acting as judge and jury, and throwing the Constitution around as if you are the last word in Constitutional case law - because frankly you are not.
I will not return to this topic.
And thats fine if you choose not to return to the site ,but the facts that i was trying to bring to attention here is simple, The deaf or people using American sign language do not use their voice's . No sound! , no disturbance!, It was the boy's flashing gang signs and carring on that disturbed the bus driver, but he choose not to give the boy's the same warning the same warning to them. as to hyped or overdramatized ? its all on the bus video, which they refuse to make available without taking legal actions against the school dept. ? reread the events as discribed in the original post . then ask what did the girls do that was wrong?
I think we all got the point. After 20 years of writing law for a large state, I certainly don't need a neophyte to point out to me what is Constitutional or not whether or not they happen to be right or wrong. Rousing the rabble just because you can is not helpful. But I guess when that's all you seem to be able to accomplish, it becomes an unfortunate way of life. It's also a sad little life.
I think we all got the point.? After 20 years of writing law for a large state, I certainly don't need a neophyte to point out to me what is Constitutional or not whether or not they happen to be right or wrong. Rousing the rabble just because you can is not helpful. But I guess when that's all you seem to be able to accomplish, it becomes an unfortunate way of life. It's also a sad little life.
You missed the whole point of the post , thats the sad thing , especially if in fact you had anything to do with putting laws into place . Again.. I reinterate The girls were sitting in their seats "Quietly" using sign language to talk to each other( this as is recorded on another of the friends cell phone).
You missed the whole point of the post , thats the sad thing , especially if in fact you had anything to do with putting laws into place . Again.. I reinterate The girls were sitting in their seats "Quietly" using sign language to talk to each other( this as is recorded on another of the friends cell phone).
I missed nothing. I can read and comprehend quite well so there's nothing sad about it. However, it was an unfortunate incident and could have been handled much better. However, not something to try to sensationalize which appears to be your primary goal along with handing out questionable legal pronouncements.
As a matter of fact, the laws I helped put in place were in your state since you're from the Inland Empire. That kind of begs the question as to why you even bother with Missouri. It wouldn't be a stretch to think you look high and low for something, anything, to get riled up about. As I said before, it's a sad little life!
Location: Finally escaped The People's Republic of California
11,251 posts, read 8,617,216 times
Reputation: 6389
and to think the first thing one of my fellow califorignyers thinks of is a lawsuit...
remember the old Animals song...We gotta get out of this place....
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