Two grown men board a school bus. The bus driver and school kids aboard are alarmed. The driver calls her supervisor, and when the bus gets to Wharton High School, the police are there waiting at to arrest the two men.
That’s the story as it’s been told. The questions being raised are obviously about why these two men got on this bus, but because the two men – USF students of Saudi Arabian descent – are foriegn, the questions are asked with unfortunate but expected racial undertones.
Here’s my question: how were these guys allowed to board the bus in the first place? Whether they were from Saudi Arabia, Sweden or Seffner, are two strange men in their twenties really supposed to be on a school bus? The driver was apparently a substitute, but this doesn’t strike me as an obscure detail that a sub wouldn’t know. Couldn’t the driver tell the two men they were in the wrong place?
If I had kids I think I’d be worried.
kate
3 years ago
Yeah, this happened a few days ago. When the kids got here, they were arrested and, as far as I know – that’s the procedure. I asked an AP why they were able to get on the bus in the first place (they did look like high school kids) and the answer was that bus drivers do not have the means to forcefully remove anyone from the bus and the safest way to deal with it is to radio in the problem, get to school and have armed police officers handle it.
That’s why I drive my children to school.
Rachel*
3 years ago
Police searched their apartments over this? Because they boarded a bus that no one told them to get off? No one thinks that’s bullsh*t?
Mr. Bedier, it looks like you have your work cut out for you.
Joel
3 years ago
The two men were released this afternoon (they were charged with trespassing and asked to appear in court at a later date.
Rachel – You are right, but unfortunately popular opinion doesn’t seem like it’s going to raise much of a fuss, at least not the opinion found in the comments
on TBO’s site.
Rachel*
3 years ago
OK, I’m going to put a few statements out there in reponse to those comments at TBO and let’s see how people like them:
1. Black people should have their homes searched when they commit misdemeanors because we know they are capable of violent murder.
2. People who speak Spanish as their primary language should not be allowed to have driver’s licenses.
3. When white kids pull pranks, it’s really because they are testing boundaries so they can later go on a political killing spree.
4. Black people only go to college so they can figure out how to undo the white machine.
5. When you get in trouble in a foreign country, you should not contact your embassy becuase it is a sure sign that you are guilty and have further undiscovered evil intentions.
6. You are f*cking idiot.
M
3 years ago
What irked me more than how these two people were treated (and trust me, that really irked me) was Daniel Ruth’s column in Tuesday’s paper. I’m sorry, but his insensitive remarks were totally unwarranted.
Hey, Daniel. Go to a foreign land that has completely alien customs, and see if you might make a mistake or two.
On second thought, just go to a foreign land.
Sandy
3 years ago
The thing that gets me is that it was reported that these guys are students at USF studying…ENGLISH. Apparently someone is spending too much time riding the high school bus and not enough time actually LEARNING the language everyone tried to speak to them in. I smell a different kind of bull**** and think the whole story is fishy.
M
3 years ago
Sandy … you may want to read every word in that story.
They have been studying English for less than six months.
If I put you in a college major for, say, Swahili, which means you are only going to get the very basics in it until your junior year (which is years, not months) … how well would you do in identifying anything in some country where Swahili is the major language?
Sandy
3 years ago
Respectfully, M, then I would not put myself in a position where I might need to make myself understood in Swahili.
M
3 years ago
That’s you, and I respect that. But at the same time, to have people respect that you are not interested in expanding your horizons in such a way would mean then that you would have to respect their desire to do the opposite.
That doesn’t make them suspicious. I think some people are so caught up on painting people with such broad strokes that they are forgetting that these are human beings, just like us. Just because they are Saudi doesn’t mean they are going to be blowing up buildings, or forcing you to wear a head cover.
I remember as a teenager back in the early 1990s, I attended this weeklong business seminar where students from all over the state would converge. It was a great experience. The one thing that really stands out to me, however, was the fact that there were two Russian nationals involved, who had JUST arrived from Moscow. Remember, this was less than a year afte the Soviet Union fell, and there were still a lot of Cold Wars ideals then.
I remember, even though I was like 15 or 16, that I was a bit scared of them. I was afraid they might be spying on us, and I was hardly in the minority there. But what was I doing? I was painting all Russians with a broad stroke. When I finally took the time to talk to them, I found out that they were very surprised by the reaction they get from a lot of Americans in their short time here, because they didn’t even KNOW there was such tension between the two countries. They never were told bad things about the United States … they just never talked about it.
I can definitely see where they would make a mistake. A “school bus” is for public school students. They attend a “public school,” so it made sense to them. The education system is different in all countries. What we call university here isn’t the same as where it is elsewhere.
It’s easy for us to say, “Hey, if you don’t understand our culture and how we do things, then stay the hell out.” But if you wish to be an isolationist, then please, don’t include me or anyone else who does not agree with that approach.
Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog » xenophobia in tampa
3 years ago
[...] I made a mistake when I wrote about the story of the two Saudi students boarding a school bus. Because Sticks is a Tampa blog, I tried to keep my thoughts focused on the local: two adults were able to board a school bus with little complaint. I knew the students’ nationality would be a major part of the story, but I wanted to avoid a subject so absolutely large. [...]
Z
3 years ago
I’ve traveled abroad in a “foreign lands” for months, learned their languages, customs and never made as stupid a mistake as these idiots.
Which leads me to believe they acted with intent, but no one’s that stupid right? A big yellow bus with a another school’s name and kids that look way to young to be classmates and their first impulse is to hitch a ride so they can find an easier place to learn English. Maybe they aren’t the most reflective pools of oil. So send’em back.
USF has enough Middle Eastern students. I doubt Sami Al-Arian/Hamas or Al Qaeda would want them anyway. USF should lose focus on recruiting “anyone” from the Middle East who has cash and focus on recruiting from other areas of the world or even focusing on recruiting more American students, novel.
Clarification (Radical Islamphobic not Xenophobic)
Matt
3 years ago
I hate muslims and make no bones about it. Deal with it. they are the enemy.