From today’s Tribune:
LOGAN – A 76-year-old woman has been barred from a bus station after giving unwanted birth-control advice to mothers with large families.
”I think it’s wrong. It’s a violation of my First Amendment rights,” Laura Stevens said.
She was arrested Tuesday for trespassing, a misdemeanor, according to police records.
”She’s been making comments to some of the Hispanic passengers that they should be on the pill, that they’re taking over our society,” said Todd Beutler, general manager of the Cache Valley Transit District.
”The passengers have a right to ride and not be intimidated,” he said.
Stevens said she recently noticed a mother struggling to control her six children.
”I felt sorry for her. Maybe she doesn’t know that she could get a patch and not have a kid for five years,” Stevens said.
She said she will fight the trespassing charge when she appears in Logan’s Municipal Court on Tuesday.
”We want her to ride the bus,” Beutler said. ”We just need to make sure that she’s not harassing any other passengers.”
Can/should passengers be banned from public funded mass transit for being rude/intolerant?
Being rude and intolerant probably aren’t a reason for banning someone, but if it goes far enough to be considered harassment in any legal sense, then I do think it’s ok. Unless there’s more the story, I am not sure this really qualifies, though.
is trespassing the right charge here? seems strange to say the least.
according to news reports i heard on KVNU, this woman has been warned about this more than once. if this is her only form of transportation as she claims, maybe she should have taken the warning more seriously.
obviously, she displays zero tact. is her age a factor to consider? perhaps she suffers from borderline dementia or something like it, and has no boundaries. it seems many of us either have or know someone with a senior relative who have boundary issues and say whatever is on their mind.
the bottom line is this is harrassment. maybe this woman needs to have a caretaker travel on the bus with her to remind her to be quiet. women know about birth control and don’t need to be reminded by a complete stranger. however…i am willing to give ms. stevens the benefit of the doubt and attribute this to her age and/or health reasons.