As we all know the March on Sacramento, held on March 15, protested the tuition increase of which our school is currently in the line of fire. Now at first hearing it seems as if there isn’t much to talk about that you haven’t already heard. That, of course, is incorrect.Sure, you may have heard the stories about what happened at the march, but what about on the way to the march? The trip on bus number one may have been smooth sailing through calm seas, but sadly the trip on bus number two is exactly the opposite.The day started out well enough, with four busses ready and waiting at Skyline College. It seemed as if we were to be having an impressive student turnout. This assumption ultimately ended with two of the four busses being sent back to the bus depot, due to the fact that there were not enough students to fill them.After the two busses that would be departing were filled and ready we began our adventure quite literally with a bump in the road. The driver of our bus forgot about the speed bump on the way out of the college and ended up running it at about 25 mph. Halfway through the trip, I decided to get some opinions; Skyline student Brandon Tabaldo told me what he thought about the bus ride: “Trying to use the bathroom on the bus is like trying to play a really cheap arcade game … where you always lose.” Upon arriving in Sacramento, we encountered our next problem. The directions given to the bus driver were not of the highest quality, and as a result we found ourselves passing by the same Safeway four separate times before somebody had the sense to tell the driver to pull over so we could walk. As the bus finally pulled over, we intercepted a large amount of low hanging branches, all of which scraped the sides of the bus and the windows providing a horrible screeching sound. Add to this the sharp turn, which the bus driver made in coming to a stop, and the fact that Skyline student Franco Cerella was in the bathroom at the time it happened, and we had a potential lawsuit waiting to happen.Fortunately for him, nothing was broken, injured, or stained. Finally we were able to proceed to the march. However, due to the runaround we had previously endured, and the fact that we were nowhere near the actual drop off point, we found ourselves having missed the actual march. We just ended up walking to the capital building to join the rest of the protesters. The ride home was calmer, with everyone tired from baking in the hot sun all day, as well as being full from eating all the extra lunches that were not given to the students who didn’t show up from busses three and four. Most of us simply passed out and enjoyed the ride.
Categories:
Another one rides the bus
Frank Romero
•
March 23, 2004
Story continues below advertisement
More to Discover