OPINION:
I’m no stranger to busing, having been transported throughout my own high school years 30 miles each day to and from the burgeoning Norfolk suburbs to Virginia Beach public schools. But it was not until we became the parents of a daughter with disabilities that we saw busing in a different light.
As parents and taxpayers, we were drawn to Fairfax County Public Schools based upon their reputation for excellence and special education programs — but little did we know that it was with that system that we would for the first time experience the sting of segregation and discrimination on our daughter’s behalf.
Certainly, there is an upside to forced busing, as reflected in the story of Sen. Kamala Harris, who turned her own experience with the phenomenon into a positive. But for our daughter, up at sunrise and on the bus by 6:30 a.m. each day so she could arrive at school by 8 a.m., forced busing was exhausting. Even the teacher needed a coffee break by 9 a.m. The commuter schedule for our then 6-year-old was repeated each afternoon, leaving her in desperate need of R&R when she arrived home.
The question a parent should be prepared to ask is whether the bus ride leads to better education and opportunities — or simply creates hardship for your child and disruption for the family. Then get ready to either fight for or taxi your own child.
Forced busing does not spell inclusion in my America.
HELEN WIECH
ROBERT WIECH
Montclair, Va.
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