Families of Lowell High School students are calling for a hate crime investigation and more police presence on San Francisco buses after they said a passenger used anti-Asian slurs on Muni and then threatened a woman with a stun gun.
The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency told The Standard in an email that the incident took place on the 29 Sunset inbound bus as school was getting out around 3 p.m. Wednesday. The agency is working with the San Francisco Police Department to figure out what happened.
“We do not tolerate crime, harassment and attacks of hate on Muni,” a spokesperson wrote in an email, “and we thank the riders who reported this to us as quickly reporting incidents of crime and harassment help us begin our investigation immediately to help SFPD identify a suspect.”
Two of the Lowell High students—whose names are being withheld at their parents’ request—relayed their accounts to The Standard on Saturday.
One student said they were on the 29 Muni traveling north on Sunset Boulevard near Taraval Street with their friends at 3:07 p.m. Wednesday when a man at the back of the bus began saying Asian people should “go back to their country” and that they are “ruining the country,” referring to them as “chinks.”
A 16-year-old girl standing nearby on the back of the bus then stood up, telling the man to “shut up,” the student said. After that, the student continued, the man approached the girl and asked her, “Who taught you your manners? Your parents should have taught you better,” before asking her if she was a “chinka.”
Then, a woman sitting in the back of the bus nearby asked the man why he was berating the girl, after which a brief argument ensued, the student said.
About 15 seconds later, the man then said, “Here’s what I’m going to do,” and whipped out a stun gun, switched it on, and pointed it at the woman who he was arguing with, the student said.
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