NAACP, school officials to meet after racial incident on bus

ST. LOUIS -- Members of the NAACP of St. Louis County plan to meet with Ladue School District leaders after white high-school students chanting "Donald Trump" suggested black students should move to the back of the school bus.

The incident is "deeply disturbing," NAACP member John Gaskin III said Tuesday. School district spokeswoman Susan Downing said the district not only wants to meet with the NAACP but hopes to begin a broader community discussion about racial diversity.

Downing said the incident happened Thursday, two days after the Republican was elected president.

"Two students got on the bus saying, 'Trump, Trump, Trump,' then one of the students made a comment taken to sound like black students should get to the back of the bus," Downing said. "It was very inflammatory, very upsetting to people on the bus."

The two white students, both male, were disciplined. Downing declined to disclose details.

No students actually were forced to move, but the reference to the back of the bus conjured images of pre-segregation America when black people were commonly treated as second-class citizens.

Ladue is among the wealthiest communities in Missouri. Only about 1 percent of the town's 8,500 residents are black, but Downing said about 20 percent of the student population is African-American because the school district draws from nine additional municipalities.

Gaskin said NAACP officials want to know the district's policy for bullying, and if diversity training is provided to students "in this very volatile environment we're living in right now."

"This has to stop and the district needs to send a very strong message that it will not be tolerated," Gaskin said.