Four students and a teacher from Sylvan Hills High School were on a charter bus that was vandalized by demonstrators Saturday evening in Washington, D.C.
None of the bus-riders -- who included about 52 students and their teachers from Arkansas, Kentucky and Illinois -- were hurt, Sylvan Hills teacher Greg Frantal said Monday. Damage to the bus, however, included a broken windshield and a side-view mirror. The bus -- which did not carry any political labels or any notice of who its passengers were -- was also spray painted.
Frantal said he and the Sylvan Hills students had flown into Washington, D.C., on Thursday to attend ceremonies and events related to the presidential inauguration. It was a trip first planned last spring and not predicated on the outcome of the election in November.
The group spent Saturday visiting different landmarks in the nation's capital and had mingled easily and peacefully with participants in the women's march that took place in the city that day, Frantal said.
Later in the afternoon, after members of the group had boarded their bus for a return to their hotel, the bus approached an intersection that was blocked by demonstrators. Frantal said the bus driver honked and slowly moved forward, which was when the vandalism occurred. Frantal estimated that it took the bus a couple of minutes to drive through the demonstrators.
"I actually used it as a teaching moment," the Sylvan Hills High American history teacher said. "The girls walked through a peaceful protest and saw what a peaceful protest looks like and then ran into this and saw just the opposite. I was able to talk to the girls -- not only me but the teachers from the other schools -- we talked about the differences between the two demonstrations and who would have more of a favorable outcome."
Metro on 01/24/2017