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reprint or license this Bus ride upsets black students TEENS SAY DRIVER TREATED THEM AS TROUBLEMAKERS By Becky Bartindale Mercury News When the driver began directing African-American students to the front of the bus -- for safety reasons, he reportedly said -- they quickly concluded that something was wrong. Now, more than a month later, some Santa Clara High School students are still upset, the NAACP is asking questions and Santa Clara Unified School District officials are trying to determine exactly what happened. The next day, the students say, about two dozen black students were segregated in the front, where the driver could keep an eye on them. To the students, it looked like someone was assuming that all black kids are troublemakers. The fight did occur,'' said Tabbitha Kappler-Hurley, the district's spokeswoman. The results will be released to the one parent who made a written complaint, she said, but not to the general public. Recommendations from a committee of school staff, parents and students will be presented to the superintendent in January. Although seating practices have returned to normal, some of the students said they hoped the district would fire the driver, who was reassigned to another route. The district would not identify him, saying it is a confidential personnel matter. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which also has looked into the situation, is urging the district to take steps to improve the climate for African-American students and staff, said Nedra Jones, a vice president with the San Jose/Silicon Valley chapter. I don't feel comfortable riding on the bus anymore,'' said a Santa Clara High junior who is active in student government. School officials have met multiple times with concerned students and parents and will continue to meet with them, Kappler-Hurley said. We're trying to listen and hear and find solutions,'' she said. It seemed to fly in the face of the gains that began with Rosa Parks, who launched the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott -- and the civil rights movement -- by refusing to give up her seat in the front of the bus for a white man. Blocked from back The students say the driver never explicitly told black students they had to ride in the front. He didn't say it, but he wouldn't let any African-American students pass. We have a right to sit wherever we want,'' added Jasmine, a junior. I don't think this is something that will clear up very easily,'' Evans said. According to students who were there, the driver pulled over after a fight broke out, called for help and ejected the two African-American boys who were scuffling. Two other black students, including one who had egged the fighters on, were asked to sit up front. Things were normal the next morning, Wednesday, when a different driver picked the students up. But that afternoon, the driver from the day before stood in the aisle and blocked African-American students from moving to the back, the students said. When some objected to being grouped by race, they said, the driver told them he'd been instructed to do it for safety reasons. The students rejected that argument because the boys who had fought weren't there. It was like the kids who fought were black, so all the black kids have to be watched,'' said senior Amecia Taylor, 17, who aspires to be a forensic investigator. they'd asked their math teacher, Viola Smith, to come along. Smith, the school's only African-American teacher, demanded to know on whose authority the driver was seating black kids separately. They were judging all the kids of that race on the actions of two kids who weren't even there,'' she said. The driver's supervisor came aboard and sat at the back with the African-American students during the bus ride home. The incident put the school and district under a microscope. Jones, from the NAACP, said she has talked to students as well as former staff members who are black, and concluded that the district could do more to attract and retain African-American employees. It also could do a better job teaching about the history and contributions of minority groups, she said. About 6 percent of the students at the school are African-American; Students praised a program offered earlier this year, called Breaking Down the Walls, that they said helped cut through many social and cultural barriers, including race. Principal Brad Syth said the program helps students venture past divides they might not otherwise cross, but costs about $10,000, which he can't afford every year.
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