Passamaquoddy mother alleges bus driver insulted Indian kids

PLEASANT POINT – A Passamaquoddy woman has sued the Eastport school distict, alleging that her daughter, a student at Shead High School, and other American Indian pupils were singled out and insulted by a Perry school bus driver two years ago.

In March, Margaret Clement filed a complaint with the Maine Human Rights Commission against Union 104 on behalf of her daughter.

An investigator for the commission found that the daughter, Diane Clement, a Passamaquoddy, was ordered to go to the front of a school bus solely because of her race and was addressed in a “discriminatory manner” by bus driver Linda Newcomb.

“The commission investigated the complaint and determined on Aug. 10, that there were reasonable grounds to believe that unlawful discrimination occurred,” the lawsuit says. “The commission endeavored unsuccessfully to eliminate the unlawful discrimination by conciliation and persuasion, ceasing their efforts on Sept. 5.”

On Monday, Union 104 Superintendent Joseph McBrine, declined to comment on the lawsuit, filed in September in Washington County Superior Court. The school district’s attorney, John Foster of Eastport, also declined to comment Monday.

According to the lawsuit, Clement was a freshman at Shead when the alleged incident occurred. On Sept. 10, 1998, the girl was returning home on the school bus, when two other pupils on the bus became involved in a gum-throwing incident.

The bus driver, rather than disciplining the specific children involved, made all the “Pleasant Point people” move to the front of the bus, the suit alleges.

Clement and other pupils from Pleasant Point were subjected to the bus driver’s comments that:

. She would not put up with their foolishness and that she didn’t have to transport them to Eastport.

. All the Pleasant Point kids were nothing but “trouble,” that they were “bad,” and they were “drones.”

. Pleasant Point didn’t pay taxes to the town of Perry to support the schools or pay for transporting them to Eastport.

. She could select a few of the good students and let the rest of them find their own way in, but that most likely she would refuse to take any of them.

Clement’s attorney, Craig T. Sanborn of Bangor, asked the court to rule that the school district’s practices were unlawful. He requested a permanent injunction prohibiting the defendants from discriminating in any manner against any individual because of race. The court was asked to award Clement civil damages and any other relief that the court finds appropriate.