‘The 57 Bus’ author speaks to Durgee students: ‘What is justice?’

Best-selling author, award-winning journalist Dashka Slater spoke to Durgee Junior High School students Thursday morning during their Wellness Day.

Slater is the author of “The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime that Changed their Lives.” The book is based on the 2013 assault on a city bus in Oakland, California.

Slater, a reporter for the New York Times Magazine, wrote an article about the assault in 2015. “The 57 Bus” was released in 2017. Both detail the true story of 18-year-old Sasha Fleischman and 16-year-old Richard Thomas.

Sasha, who identifies as agender – neither male nor female – was dressed in a skirt and had fallen asleep on the bus. Three teen boys, including Richard, joked about Sasha. Richard took a lighter and lit Sasha’s skirt on fire.

Sasha suffered second- and third-degree burns and Richard was charged with a hate crime.

Slater started off her talk by asking the students, “What is justice?”

That’s just one of the questions that Slater hopes will be discussed among teens in schools and in homes after reading her book.

“I had one goal when I was writing this book, which was I wanted to start conversations,” Slater said. “I wanted to give kids the opportunity to talk about things that are hard to talk about.”

Slater’s book addresses topics of gender, race and justice. She suggests that parents read the book with their children.

“What’s wonderful about that is then they can both talk,” Slater said. “They can go over the issues and the dilemmas together.”

Visit Slater’s website to learn more about the book and her career.

Want to read it? Durgee Library has copies of “The 57 Bus” and it’s available for sale on Amazon.