by Alex DiBranco A 12-year-old girl in Kentucky was forced to sit, isolated from the other students, in the back of a school bus by order of the driver. For what cause? The student has two mommies, and objected to homophobic talk by others on the bus. But Michael A. Jones reports on Gay Rights that the bus driver, Ronell Mattingly, found the homophobia amusing, and when she found out the girl was the daughter of same-sex parents, also insulted and mocked her. The girl informed the Mattingly she was a “jerk,” for which she got suspended from the bus for a few days, and upon returning was sent to the back of the bus (reminiscent of segregation much?). The bus driver, on the other hand, seems to have been given a free pass. Oh, and when the girls' parents protested that their daughter was being punished for standing up for their family? The Assistant Principal said the 12-year-old should grow “thicker skin.” This isn't the first time a child has been punished by a school for having same-sex parents; just a couple days ago, we learned that a Massachusetts Catholic school was off-limits to an eight-year-old with two mommies, and in March, we heard that a four- and five-year-old in Boulder, Colorado, were going to be kicked out at the end of the year for the sin of having two parents who are both female. But this case is a little different, because the school in question is a public institution. So, do you want your tax dollars going to support homophobia? One other thing: the bus driver, Mattingly, had the audacity to demand that the girl to apologize to her. She aggressively demanded a written apology, which the girl's family had already decided was definitely not going to happen, forcing the girl to stop riding the school bus again to escape being harassed. The only apology that should be happening is from the school, to the girl and her family, and the driver should be the one kicked off the bus. Photo credit: Bruno Girin added by: EthicalVegan
