The times, they ain't a'changin'

From the Monroe News Star (24 August 2006):

School bus driver Delores Davis faced termination in Coushatta, La., in August after she decided to arrange seating on her bus, with whites up front and all nine black kids into the back two rows.

Yeah, this might have been surprising if the story had originated anywhere other than in my hometown newspaper. In Louisiana, enforcing civil rights falls just slightly below curtailing the nutria population on the list of government priorities. The only thing that surprises me about this whole story is that the bus driver might actually get fired (notice that she only faced termination, not that she had been fired already). If you've ever ridden in a Louisiana school bus (and let's face it, who hasn't?), then you'll know that it's virtually impossible to get a bus driver fired. I'd like to go into more detail, but my psychotherapist has warned me that revisiting that particular stage in my life is likely to result in severe and permanent damage to my mental well-being. Let's just say that the evidence introduced at trial included a strobe light, two buckets of lemon jello and a life-size cardboard cutout of Marlon Brando as Col. Kurtz.