Man Purse Drives A Bus
Friday, June 16th, 2006I don’t even have to write anything, i’m just going to post a little set up and then I’ll let an excerpt from the article do the rest.
Emil Grandbouche, an Akron, Ohio school bus driver, was asked to take a sobriety test after telling some school children he was drinking “apple juice on the rocks.” The kids didn’t believe that it was apple juice so they got a cop who administered the test. Emil failed, stumbling when asked to walk a straight line. It was around this time he was scheduled to get in a bus and drive a bunch of kids home, but he was arrested instead.
Here’s what he had to tell the paper about his arrest:
“‘At first, I felt like I was targeted. I mean I thought the officer was playing a prank on me. I thought he was kidding,’ he said. ‘It was like racism in reverse. It’s a predominantly black school, and I never saw any other white person working there. I always tried to be friendly with everyone at the school, but it’s like I didn’t really belong there. No one was ever friendly.
I’m not a racist or bigot by any stretch of the imagination. I’m the last person who would discriminate against anybody. I happen to know what bigotry is all about,’ he said, ‘because I happen to be a gay man.’
To make matters worse, he asked police officers for his ‘man purse’ from the bus because a substitute driver was called.”
Usually when you have to say I’m not a racist, you’re a racist. And thank god for good timing as this story breaks right as Ohio is trying to pass an anti-gay marriage amendment. I’m sure the religious wrong will make Emil their little poster boy, because this story’s got everything–bigotry, alcoholism, drug use, gay sex and school children. Awesome.
Akron Beacon Journal: Bus driver blames self for arrest