The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

This week, I was reading through the local news headlines and one particular headline caught my eye. The article explained that a twelve year old boy was being denied use of a local transportation service because he was too tall. The bus driver stated that there was no way that the boy of that height could actually be twelve years of age and therefore was not allowed to use the bus pass that he was trying to use. His school officials provided paperwork stating that the student was actually twelve years old, but the bus driver still refused to serve this child. The link for the article is here: http://www.10tv.com/content/stories/2013/12/05/cota-bus-harassment_.html.

When I first read this article, I was shocked that the bus driver would refuse to allow the child to ride the bus. The bus driver was judging the credibility of the bus pass that was actually issued by the bus company. I was glad to see that the school was working hard to assist the family, even though the school was not directly related to the incident. The bus driver was using a form of ageism because they did not agree that a twelve year old child could actually be that height. I would be very upset if they were judging my child based on their size. My four year old daughter has a large bone structure and looks older than what she actually is. There are also many times where she acts older than her age as well. That does not give people the right to treat her as though she is older than a four year old. This article truly opened my eyes to how bias and oppression actually occur regularly in everyday situations. In order to make things fair, the bus driver should have to not only honor the student's bus pass, but all make a public apology for not living up to the standards of the transportation company and serving all paying citizens. The child should not have to go get state issued identification, which is the proposed solution for this incident.