Bus Incident Boosts Calls for Antibullying Law

The reported harassment of a Lansing, Mich., lesbian teenager by a school bus driver Wednesday has renewed calls for antibullying legislation in her state.

"This incident was verbal bullying," Kevin Epling, codirector of BullyPolice U.S.A., told The Michigan Messenger. "The bus driver was in control of the situation. Bullying is an imbalance of power. The student had no choice but to accept what was being said and to act later."

The teen, 10th-grader Chinea Larkin (pictured), told Lansing television station WLNS, "I stood up and was about to get off the bus, [and] she was like, 'Now you can get your gay self off my bus.' Well, she said, 'Get your gay tail off my bus.'"

In a video taped by another passenger, the unidentified woman bus driver can be heard saying to Larkin, "Hopefully you and your little girlfriend don't get lost in your unsaved lives."

Larkin and her parents have filed a complaint with the Lansing school district, which has placed the driver on administrative leave while the incident is under investigation.

Epling, whose son Matt committed suicide after being bullied in school, has been working with the Safe Schools Coalition in lobbying for antibullying legislation dubbed "Matt's Law." The Michigan house of representatives passed it last year, but the Republican-controlled senate refused to vote on it. Democratic state senator Glenn Anderson reintroduced it this year.

The bus incident shows how much the legislation is needed, said Alicia Skillman, executive director of the Triangle Foundation, a Detroit-based gay rights group that is also a member of the Safe Schools Coalition. "Bullies come in all sizes," she told the Messenger. "It's extra insidious when it is an adult against a child."

The Michigan Democratic Party's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Ally Caucus has called on supporters of the legislation to contact state lawmakers, said chair Phil Volk, and is planning to protest at the school district's headquarters.