Police: Girl Stole School Bus, Hit Cop Car

WOW,

Its like <u>Ferris Bueller's Day Off</u> meets <u>Vanishing Point</u>.

I've been saying we should get rid of the private yellow busing system, but no one wanted to listen. Now look what happens.
Seriously though, we need to get rid of or seriously downgrade the use of private busing when we have schools right in neighborhoods and within walking distance of most children's homes. And I hope the cop is alright and not badly injured.

What people fail to realize is that since New Haven has a bunch of Magnet and Private schools, there are children that are bused in from other towns. AND, with all the shootings and things that have been happening in broad daylight lately, would you want your 2nd grader walking home by themselves even if it's around the corner? Head Start, KG and 1st graders are the only ones required to be met by an adult. If you have a 3rd grader that's not very tall and not husky in size, would you want them walking home by themselves??? Buses are needed. Just because some people can get in their Infiniti's and drive little Billy to school every morning and make their own hours for work. Everyone isn't blessed like that.

No worries, she's a Cross student. She'll get a two day suspension and will be back at the books in no time!

I have never posted to one of these comment sections before. But Jonathan, the idea to make kids walk to school will only increase the number of children who are victims of abduction or rape.

I've totally done the same thing playing "Grand Theft Auto."

Only in New Haven, folks, only in New Haven!
Great work Lt. Jeff and the NHPD.

The way the First Student drivers tear around town, though, it could have been one of their own... Hey, maybe the girl has a career w/ them in her future!

Jonathan Hopkins: I don't know how in favor you are/were of the Magnet school system in New Haven. But the Magnet schools are the top schools in the city. These magnet schools demand buses.

Neighborhood schools don't work to minimize segregation. This is one reason the magnet school system came into effect...to desegregate the schools.

I don't think a girl stealing a bus is the proper place to argue for neighborhood schools.

It is like saying since a cop car got stolen we should go back to community substations.

"Seriously though"
I thought that would have clued everybody that the statement made prior to that was a joke...oh well.

Community and neighborhood-based elementary and middle schools are going to come back whether anybody likes it or not. We cannot afford the elaborate and unnecessary private yellow busing system. We also cannot afford the importation of suburban school teachers who contribute very little to the city and require lots of parking that is built over wetlands and developable land. Fearing children walking home from school is the acceptance of a degraded society with no will to address its problems. The problem is not segregated schools-it never has been. The problem is segregated neighborhoods.
The way we more forward is to provide incentives for a large group of the suburban middle class to move back into the city in all different neighborhoods. Luckily, New Haven's neighborhoods are mostly filled with one of the most adaptive and flexible building types in existence-the New England vernacular, traditional 2 family house. The top two floors make for a 4-5 bedroom house, while the first floor can be rented out as affordable housing that supplements the primary mortgage. Public housing is also unnecessary if the private sector (individuals) simply provides the affordable housing with our underused housing stock.
The idea that New Haven's crime rate will have to drop to 1900s era levels BEFORE people will move back is unrealistic. Crime rose in the 60s precisely because the middle class was leaving, so the middle class will have to come back before the crime lowers. This is going to be the trend for coming decades. In case no one noticed, our country can no longer afford the 20th century lifestyle, and we do not have the resources to continue that lifestyle of driving everywhere for everything and living within no discernible relationship to the things we need. A lot of the suburban land will need to be used as farm land again because we will not be able to afford to transport food from the mid-west cheaply anymore. Our lives will soon revolve around the walkable, geographically small neighborhood units that are connected with transit.

I think it is finally time to call for Marshall Law, everyone arm yourself and protect your own....god I love nh

"me" I'm pretty sure JH was being a little bit sarcastic... however I do agree with him that the busing system needs to be done away with. Contrary to popular belief, most magnet schools don't facilitate actual integration (meaning students of various races and ethnicities are actually friends with each other, not that they simply walk past each other in the halls). It makes me mad that Mayo et al have been able to brainwash people (is anyone else disgusted by their ads to get suburban students to come to city magnet schools?).

Not to be picky but why not publish the name and photo (if available) of the suspect?

I thought news outlets were supposed to report the five Ws. You know, WHO, what, where, when and why. [my emphasis on the WHO]
....

[Editor's Note: Our policy is generally not to publish the names of people arrested, unless we have their side, they've been convicted, or the case involves a public figure or includes some other extenuating circumstance that makes it important for readers to know. Otherwise we feel a person's reputation is ruined before he or she gets a day in court or gets a chance to give the other side.]

@ working(too hard) mom

Hee hee. I know what you mean. But if she was carrying a cell phone, or wearing a hat, well then, it would be at least three days of suspension.

I'll be interested to learn more about this unfunny episode. What the #% was going through this kid's head? It's lucky nobody was more badly hurt; it could have been tragic. Especially when backing up, she could easily have killed a pedestrian or a cyclist.

As for the argument that Jonathan started -- I'm with you, Jonathan, for the long run, but for the foreseeable future, school buses are every bit as necessary for busing city residents to their schools of choice as they are for bringing suburban kids into the city. The city buses are not a viable alternative for small children or long distances involving changing buses on the Green.

Furthermore, bringing suburban kids into the city is a first step towards convincing their parents' peer group [presumably the parents are already convinced] that the city is not a snakepit but in fact a lively, relatively safe community.

"I think it is finally time to call for Marshall Law. . . "

Who is this Marshall guy, and how can he help us?

Just another kid whose parents want her to happy, and not responsible. Good job, mom and dad. I hope she is immediately suspended, and kept out of the rest of the New Haven Public Schools system. This is a ridiculous incident, I can't wait to see how it is handled.

Has there been any official word on how many stars she got? Did a tank appear? This is the biggest news since the hot coffee mod!

whitneycyclist:

Marshall Law is a country and southern rock band.

http://www.marshalllawband.com/

Apparently they're hoping to record a CD soon, but I'm still unclear about how 'city employee' thinks they will be able to defend us against commandeered school buses. But we can catch up with them at the Mansfield (Ohio?) VFW on May 8th and ask them.

John Thompson, I seriously doubt that is true. I can't wait until my little girl is old enough to walk to school. When she graduates to middle school, which is a little further, I hope she will ride her bike in. Kids need exercise and they need more time outdoors. I will not go through life thinking there is a boogieman behind every tree.

Isn't this precisely the type of self-starter behavior we wish to promote in youth? and in the industry of her choice!

The idea that our suburbs are about to collapse is absurd. Even more unrealisitic is the idea that our middle class is about to desert the burbs and hit the cities. Perhaps after a major calamity but not in the ordinary course of events.
Yes this could be a possibility if an aggresive policing policy were adopted against quality of life crimes. And the school system would need a complete renovation.
Neighborhoods in NYC and Brooklyn that were crime ridden were cleaned up and are now gentrified with commerce and young families.Every time I visit such places i am amazed, what happened ? What happened is Rudy Gulliani !
Imagine a well policed city making neighborhoods with great housing stock ,safe from serious crime and liveable (noise, traffic violations,neat and well kept etc) I think many young people would welcome such an option over more expensive areas around Yale or the burbs.But aggresive polcing is the first priority. Eventually the city fathers wil get it but not before NH turns into another Detroit. Alas ! Thats the bad news the good news is that its not so far from Detroit now.

@Zalman,

In case you haven't noticed, the New Haven schools, in the last 15 years, HAVE been completely renovated. When they finally get to East Rock School -- that appalling example of inhuman Brutalist architecture -- every single New Haven Public School will have been renovated, modernized, and/or rebuilt, with well-designed, safe, often beautiful spaces. The entire system has been reorganized on a K-8 basis that is much better for kids than K-4 plus middle school. New magnet and charter schools have been added, and a major, ongoing campaign for academic improvement has been underway for over a decade and has made real progress. No, it's not perfect, but it's real and it is getting results.

And young professionals ARE moving into the city. How do you think they filled the "Smoothie" building or expect to fill the new tower that's going up at Chapel and State? And (equally or more important) have you noticed that in the last fifteen years, the Elm Haven and Q Terrace projects that were full of blight have been razed and replaced with attractive, liveable, mixed-income neighborhoods? And that community policing is alive and well in New Haven?

Rudy Giuliani may have presided over some good stuff in NYC, but I'll take John DeStefano any day because he's not a crazy egotist and he's interested in real solutions. He's also been damn good at getting state money for New Haven.

@William Kurtz, obviously whitneycyclist meant MARTIAL LAW, but cannot spell it. ... I'm for more parent interest in their own children, and more accountability. That's what this generation, my generation, of parents is sorely lacking.

@Gretchen: Be careful when you use the word every. With words like that, you end up being wrong. I work in a New Haven Public School (CT Scholars, the old Cross Annex/the old HSC) that has not been renovated. And I doubt that there are plans to renovate this 1888 brickhouse anytime soon. I hope they don't tear it down, as I have ones of the finest views in the city; but, we could use a little TLC. Windows and toilets need fixing. The bats in the belfry should be guided back to the park. I need more electrical outlets in my room to accomodate laptops. The mold in classrooms with leaks needs abatement. Nevertheless, the teachers love it here and we press on. The major challenge is convincing kids coming out of the super-deluxe K-8 schools that looks don't matter, and the quality of the teaching & learning should take precedence over a multi-million dollar construction budget. But like I said, we press on.

@Leslie,

You're right, I overlooked that one. My oldest went to that school when it was HSC and loved the old building. I hope it does get fixed up ... and I hope when/if that happens, they respect the integrity of the traditional school layout -- the big hallways that facilitate people mixing and meeting. My daughter's class at HSC moved to the new building for their senior year, and were convinced that the new building's layout (and the new location, at the edge of Water Street) had wiped out the special character of the school. They dedicated their yearbook to the old building.

"@William Kurtz, obviously whitneycyclist meant MARTIAL LAW, but cannot spell it. "

In case it wasn't clear, i was making a sly witticism about the misspelling that "city employee" had made. One silly comment begat another.

We could buy each kid a bike, cancel the bus contract, and save many millions of $$, plus have much cleaner air, and be celebrated nationally as a "green" community

Ban cars during school travel hours now,for safety, and when the bikists grow up, completely ignoring any traffic laws as most bikists do, creating chaos, they will , by law, totally eliminate cars, producing the ultimate bikists' fantasy, a car-free road system.

Today New Haven. Tomorrow the world!

Oh, whitneycyclist! You blinked! Never explain or apologize; a knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ear, as I read <a href="http://www.twelfth-night.info/clicknotes/hamlet/H42.html#23&quot;&gt; somewhere</a>.

Walt, I'm much rather live in a city where everyone rides bicycles and a small percentage blatantly ignores the traffic laws which causes ... annoyance ... than the city of drivers where an appreciable number of drivers ignore the traffic laws and hit and kill people on a semi-regular basis. You know, the one I live in.

The tale of two stories; both are about high school seniors at Wilbur Cross High. One says: