Pupils to Get Trolley Ride--This Time on the House

Reeling from a public-relations nightmare, Metropolitan Transit Development Board directors on Thursday invited handicapped students from Albert Schweitzer School to take another trolley ride--this time without being ordered off at the wrong stop.

Six handicapped preschoolers, two other students and four adult chaperones were kicked off a trolley in a rainstorm Monday because the trolley operator mistakenly thought they had paid an insufficient fare for their destination.

Rather than checking the disputed fare or allowing the group to remain on the trolley for one more stop to Harborside station, their intended destination, the operator ordered the group off the trolley at the Barrio Logan station, trolley officials concede.

The group waited in the rain for the next trolley to come along 15 minutes later, and then had to insist on being allowed aboard after the second operator balked at taking the group because his train’s lift for the handicapped was not operating.

On Thursday, the trolley’s directors invited the youngsters to ride the trolley, as their guests, from downtown San Diego to the border and back. In addition, some other reciprocation--perhaps lunch or a souvenir--will be offered the students, the directors decided.

Meanwhile, an investigation into the operator’s actions will continue into next week before a decision is made, trolley spokeswoman Judy Leitner said. Discipline for the unnamed trolley operator might range from a verbal or written reprimand to firing, trolley officials have said.

“We would like the students to have a positive experience on the trolley and public transportation in general,” Leitner said. “It’s up to the school and the teacher to schedule when they’ll go on the ride.”

She said that in her three years as public relations director for the trolley system, she cannot recall an incident “as unfortunate as this.”

“We regret anything that might give public transit a bad image; this definitely was a mistake, and we want to more than just apologize for it,” she said.

School Principal Robert Altman said his contacts with trolley officials in the wake of the incident “have been very positive.”

“We’re not looking for any punitive action (against the operator). Our position was simply to bring the incident to management’s attention because it shouldn’t happen again,” he said. “We will be very pleased if communications were made to operators on how to be more sensitive to the needs of the handicapped.”

Will the students accept the offer to ride the trolley?

“You bet,” he said. “They’d love it.”