Two Gender Nonbinary Students Were Kicked Off A School Bus By Hateful Driver

_{Image via Pexels}

Advertisement

Another situation has appeared where a school bus driver doesn’t respect an LGBTQ student.

This latest event happened in a school bus for Glen Falls High School in New York State.

What started the situation was that after school buses for South Glens Falls Central School District  have a seating order based off of gender. Boys have to sit on the right and girls must sit on the left.

Leo Washington and (Aaren) Layla Sweenor, two students who identify as Trans Nonbinary, chose to sit on the right side of one bus. The bus driver was not happy.

Advertisement

“Before he started the bus, (the bus driver) gave us this weird look and he told us to get to the girls side of the bus and we didn’t move because we felt more comfortable where we were sitting. When we tried to explain it to him, he started yelling at us to move to the other side of the bus,” Washington said to the Post Star.

That’s when 15-year-pld Lilly Wolfe, a friend of the two, spoke up against the bus driver in support of her friends.

The driver then yelled out, "I'm not moving the bus until I get what I want.”

The argument proceeded until eventually the bus driver threatened to report the two students and they both eventually got off the bus.

Advertisement

More: Old Lawsuit Resurfaces For Cop and Bus Driver Who Allegedly Said Gay Teen "Will Burn"

Not only were other students on the bus supportive of the two nonbinary students, as you can hear in the video above, but even the school has chosen to support the students as they added in a later statement.

“The students politely refused and remained in their seats, with every right to do so,” the school’s statement said.

After getting off the bus, the two students informed the school’s administration of the incident and found another bus to take home.

Advertisement

Now, the school says they are “working with the driver,” and express that they had only just recently gone through training with school staff on September 5th. The training focused on issues such as discrimination, intimidation, taunting, harassment and bullying under the state's Dignity For All Students Act. Now after this issue, they state they will be including gender sensitivity training.

“The whole experience was traumatic. I’ve been so terrified of my feelings and who I am and trying to be myself publicly has been horrifying,” Sweenor told Post Star. “Coming into high school was a scary thing to begin with, so members of school faculty need to be trained better on how to act.”

“Students should not be discriminated against because of their race, gender or sexuality in a place where they’re supposed to be safe to learn. We need to make schools a safe space for everyone,” Sweenor added.

The friend to Washington and Sweenor, Lily Wolfe, added that outside of this argument South Glens Falls High is generally accepting of diversity.

"But you know there's always those people who don't accept certain stuff and have different beliefs, but we can't do anything about them," she said. "Nothing really like this has happened before as far as I've been in this school."

In terms of the issue and of protecting students from discrimination, Michael Patton, the superintendent of Glen Falls schools, said, “We do not tolerate any form of discrimination against our students.”