What should be the cost of a terrible mistake? On Nov. 4, 2013, two young people’s lives tragically intersected on a bus in Oakland, Calif. That afternoon, Oakland’s 57 bus carried Richard and Sasha home after school.
Each had had very different life experiences that led them to this moment, including their race, class, education, upbringing and gender identities. Dashka Slater’s “The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives” tells the stories of Richard and Sasha, which neither began nor ended when Sasha’s skirt is lit on fire, resulting in serious burns. Instead, the book carefully highlights the complexity and intersectionality of their lives and our juvenile justice system.
Before the fire, Richard and Sasha were just two high school students living in Oakland. Richard was coming home from public Oakland High School and Sasha from a private high school in Berkeley. Richard had returned recently from a group home and struggled with trauma and community violence, but was dedicated to improving his education. Sasha was a highly accomplished young person with an excellent academic record who fearlessly challenged conventional gender norms, behavior that was nurtured at home and in school.
[For more on this story by Brian Goldstein, go to https://jjie.org/2018/07/23/in...dults-in-the-57-bus/]
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