Black Community Up In Arms Over Embattled Bus Driver’s Early Retirement

Date: Thursday, September 07, 2006
By: Sherrel Wheeler Stewart, BlackAmericaWeb.com

A Louisiana school bus driver who had assigned nine black school children to sit in the back of the bus in August is retiring about a month earlier than planned after complaints from parents, the community and the NAACP.

OBM: Why is it when an authority gets caught red handed they always seem to get away without any or very little punishment. and she still gets her retirement.....sounds like pay for a job well done!!!
But a Louisiana district NAACP leader said the incident brought to light when school started for the fall semester exposed a system of decades of discrimination in Red River Parish. And parents and community residents say they still are not satisfied with the handling of the matter.

The school board voted Tuesday to allow Deloris Davis to retire, although some had called for her to be fired. One of three black Red River Parish school board members voted with the majority to accept the early retirement.

School officials attest that ill will and racial discrimination were not the intent of Davis, who had worked for the system as as bus driver for almost 25 years. She had already planned to retire on Oct. 4 of this year.

The school board took its actions in a small board room, while more than 100 people were kept outside because of fire regulations. But inside the heated meeting, there were calls for the bus driver to be terminated and for the school superintendent to resign.