minneapolis

Vang said a Henry student he knew only by his first name was robbed at gunpoint at a bus stop earlier this school year. The robber took a phone and an English project, he said.

Brothers Chwe and Adam Yang were standing with a sister and a cousin on a December morning at a bus stop near their Hawthorne neighborhood home when a lone man crossed the street. Without provocation or conversation, they said, he hit Adam in the eye and Chwe in the nose, then took off. They got ice packs at school to quell swelling, Chwe said.

Mooney is one member of Henry’s parent-community council who is upset by the attacks, especially the one on Vang. “The whole thing makes me sick,” she said. “Somebody needs to admit responsibility for the safety of transportation of the students before and after school.”

School board Chairman Alberto Monserrate said that he has heard allegations of attacks but that he wants to be sure they’re related to use of the Go-To passes and couldn’t have happened at school bus stops.

Some parents are upset because they feel the bus safety problem has been swept under the rug. Community organizer Jay Clark is one of those helping Hmong parents get their concerns out.

“It certainly sounds to me like there is a problem with security and crime,” he said. “They have not solved it on the North Side yet.”

 

Steve Brandt • 612-673-4438

Twitter: @brandtstrib