DEAR EDITOR:
Because I was a teacher and principal at Glen View School from
1954 to 1958 I was asked to be the keynote speaker at this year’s
50th year anniversary celebration at the school.
DEAR EDITOR:
Because I was a teacher and principal at Glen View School from 1954 to 1958 I was asked to be the keynote speaker at this year’s 50th year anniversary celebration at the school. Being concerned about boring the audience with too long a talk, I shortened my planned speech by omitting a story with which I planned to close my talk. As soon as I concluded and returned to my seat, my wife asked, “Why did you leave out the story about some of your former students, I think people would have found it interesting.”
I agreed and felt sorry I had made this omission.
I would like to share what I planned as the closing part of my talk.
Over it’s history Glen View School has had a large number of students who have gone on to achieve success and recognition in many areas of life. From the brief time I taught here I know of a student who became an architect and is now the lead architect for all the construction that takes place at the University of Santa Cruz. Another became a veterinarian and now is the head of the Department of Agriculture in the state of North Dakota, a third former student became a lawyer and for a time was the city attorney of the city of San Diego.
These are great accomplishments, but something accomplished by another students stands out even higher in my mind. This young man achieved something not after many years of higher learning, but while he was still a 5th grade student here at Glen View School. He alone was responsible for a law that was enacted which had an immediate impact on every school district in the state of California, and still does to this day.
This 9-year-old boy lived out in the country, just off Day Road. Like many youngsters living in the country his hobby was raising animals. He had a horse, a donkey, a few sheep and some chickens. But his favorite hobby was raising rats, a large variety of rats.
One early Monday morning he boarded his school bus carrying a fairly large enclosed container. Being one of the first to be picked up he had his choice of seats and he chose always to sit in the very back of the bus. The bus continued its daily run picking up 62 students along Day Road, Watsonville Road, Redwood Retreat Road and Hecker Pass Highway. The majority of these students were made up of junior high and high school students and for some reason the vast majority were girls.
As the bus entered the city limits near what is now Santa Teresa and First Street the young boy could not wait till he got to Glen View to share the contents of his box. So he placed the box on the floor and opened the lid. Out jumped not one, not two, not three, but one dozen rats!! The bus became instant bedlam!
The students jumped onto the seats and started screaming as only junior high and high school girls and boys can scream. The bus driver, a well trained, competent driver, quickly pulled the bus to the side of the road and brought it to a safe stop. Then she turned to see what could be causing this terrible commotion. All she saw was a bunch of rats running around the floor of the bus and coming toward her. Her training had never included this so she jumped onto the driver’s seat and started screaming.
Being 7:45 a.m., there was considerable traffic and all traffic in both directions immediately stopped and ran to the bus to see what had happened and try to help. But the bus door was closed and the driver was not even trying to open it. After several minutes two police cars arrived. The officers stood on the bumper of the bus and looked inside through the front window. All they saw was the driver and 61 students standing on the seats jumping and screaming. The 62nd student was the Glen View boy who was crawling around on his hands and knees frantically trying to catch his rats.
The police finally were able to calm the driver down enough to where she was able to open the door. The police evacuated the bus and then with the help of others helped my students round up his rats.
I was asked to go pick up the student as he wasn’t allowed to re-board the bus with his rats.
As we drove back to Glen View School I asked him to tell me what had happened. He said he didn’t intend to turn the rats loose, he was only going to show them to a few students sitting around him who were curious to know the contents of the box. But, he said, as soon as some girls saw the rats they started screaming. This frightened his poor rats and they started jumping out of the box.
By now he couldn’t continue relating his story because he was laughing so hard. The more he tried to continue the harder he laughed. Finally with tears rolling down his face all he was able to say between bursts of laughter was, “Oh Mr. Valencia you should have been there. It was sooooo funny.”
This incident made big news not only on our local Dispatch but also in newspapers throughout California.
Within just a few days our local state Assemblyman, I believe it was recently elected George Milias, presented a bill in the state Assembly which when passed would make it against the law for any person to ever bring a live animal onto a school bus in the state of California.
Until then this had been a common practice in California, especially in the rural areas. The bill was passed overwhelmingly in the Assembly and it then went to the Senate where I believe it passed unanimously. It went to the governor who quickly signed it. Since it was signed as an emergency measure it immediately became law. From that day in 1958 till this day no live animal other than a Guide Dog for the Blind can be brought onto a school bus in the state of California.
I believe the law should have been named “The Boy From Glen View School Law.”
Gonzalo Stephen Valencia, Gilroy
Submitted Monday, April 26
EDITOR’S NOTE: This letter was misplaced, then found. Our apologies for not publishing it sooner.
