Takeaways from a Burlington bus driver's decision to remove a group of students mid-route

A group of students were kicked off a Green Mountain Transit bus on their way home from school in late May — and the discussion quickly turned to race. 

The May 23 incident involved a bus transporting students from Edmunds Middle and Elementary School, many of them students of color, according to Burlington School District officials.The removal of students kicked off a Burlington City Council meeting June 3 where Mark Sousa, the general manager of Green Mountain Transit (GMT), addressed the incident. 

Burlington School District does not run its own school bus service, instead contracting GMT to ferry students on regular bus routes. These "School Trippers" are also open to the general public.

Young passengers ejected from the bus attend some of the most diverse public schools in Vermont. The incident provoked conversations about a number of subjects, including the treatment of students of color; required training for bus drivers; the behavior of the students on the bus; and the decision to remove passengers away from their intended stops.  

The Facebook post

On May 25, Rebecca Mack posted on her Facebook page that she filed a complaint against Green Mountain Transit about children, including two of her own, being ejected from the bus.

Mark wrote, in part, that the students told her, "the bus driver targeted the students of color on the bus, threatened to call the police, and made all students of color exit the bus while white students remained seated."

The post sparked questions about how people of color are treated and calls for the driver to be fired.

Video footage from the bus shows students who "appear to be singing, dancing, pushing, and banging on the windows," according to a GMT news release. The students were told to stop hitting the windows and the group removed was "inclusive of all races." 

The Burlington School District and GMT stated they could not conclude the driver's actions were motivated primarily by racial bias. The spot where students were removed was a bus route stop, but it was not the designated location for all students ejected. 

'We acted as swift as we possibly could'

GMT General Manager Sousa said the company did not learn of the incident until at least one day after it occurred and apologized to families and community members who were impacted. He said drivers undergo de-escalation training and took questions from city councilors. 

"I will tell you that 99 percent of our operators are amazing," Sousa said. "And sometimes you get that one... We acted as swift as we possibly could. And we need to move forward from this." 

Points made during the meeting by councilors included:

• Concerns for the confidentiality of students depicted in the bus video footage.
• Acknowledgement that student behavior on buses can make it difficult for drivers.
• Calls for parents to teach their children what's required in different environments, like buses.  
• Questions about the training bus drivers undergo, including in issues of discrimination. 

The school district lists specific expectations for students, which include remaining seated; obeying the driver's instructions; keeping hands, arms and heads to oneself; not throwing objects; and maintaining a quiet voice.  

The school district's superintendent, Yaw Obeng, described the students' actions as "unacceptable" in a June 3 Front Porch Forum post. But he wrote that the driver's decision to eject students was "dangerous and inexcusable." 

About one quarter of students at Edmunds Middle and Elementary School are members of ethnic or racial minority groups, according to Public School Review. Most of these students are black.  

'Lived-experiences of our students of color'

Despite the school district's did not conclude there was racial bias, the superintendent wrote "we would be foolish as a community to ignore the lived-experiences of our students of color and what this experience felt like in the moment." 

The district's director of equity, Henri Sparks, believes in implementing culturally sensitive practices and policies for students. 

"We look at all our students as students of equal opportunity as far as being informed and engaged," Sparks said. 

He described an initiative the district has undertaken to minimize how often students of color are removed from class — to avoid feeding into the school-to-prison pipeline.

Students of color "face harsher disciplinary measures," according to Patrick Brown, the executive director of the Greater Burlington Multicultural Resource Center.

Brown did not want to accuse the driver of racism without having all the details available. But he acknowledged that students of color are typically suspended more often than their peers and do not necessarily see themselves represented in their school's administration and staff. 

"You can’t talk about diversity when it’s not modeled in our institution."

Looking ahead: 'Young kids should never have been put off the bus' 

Racial discrimination is a major conversation point in this debate. But people are upset about another aspect: Children being removed from a bus at before reaching their designated stops. 

"The issue is the young kids should never have been put off the bus by any means," Brown said. "By any way, shape or form."

He felt the driver exhibited a lack of sensitivity. Brown said the district is equally responsible for the incident and hoped sensitivity training would be in place for drivers to respect and value differences. 

Sparks wanted to understand the motive behind students being ejected, but said people often jump to conclusions. He did not think students should have been removed and — though the district concluded the incident was not strictly motivated by race — he saw a chance for progress. 

"I firmly believe this gives us an opportunity as a community to really have a conversation around bias," he said.

Contact Maleeha Syed at mzsyed@freepressmedia.com or 802-495-6595. Follow her on Twitter @MaleehaSyed89.