Two Saudi men arrested after boarding Tampa school bus
an Associated Press report 05/22/06
TAMPA - Two Saudi men are being held without bond after they were arrested for boarding a school bus full of children in Tampa.
Mana Saleh Almanajam and Shaker Mohsen Alsidran are charged with misdemeanor trespassing and are being held at Orient Road Jail. The judge says she wants more background information on them.
The two men arrived in the country six months ago on student visas and are enrolled at the English Language Institute at the University of South Florida.
The judge has scheduled a hearing for tomorrow.
It's unclear exactly why they boarded the bus. The director of the Central Florida Council on American-Islamic Relations says it sounds like a cultural mix-up.
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Did they think just anybody can hop on a bus and get a free ride? Do they know they are in America, Busses are for Children! My Gosh the Children, can you imagine what they went through when Mana and Shakar climbed aboard. Where was home land security?
What happened to the 2 men, not really. At least only the bond vs background check, but all things being equal it seems reasonable.
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If it had been two white guys getting on the bus it wouldn't have had the same impact would it....
They would have been arrested for child molesting or tentative of pedophilly recrutment. Why don't they just say why they got in the bus in the first place. Why letting this happen, they like to feel prosecuted.
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TAMPA - Two Saudi men were arrested Friday after they boarded a school bus and rode to Wharton High School in New Tampa.
Students on the bus became alarmed, as did the bus driver, who called ahead. Hillsborough County sheriff's deputies met the bus at the school and detained the men. No one was injured and nothing out of line occurred on the bus, deputies said.
Mana Saleh Almanajam, 23, who lives in Apt. 302 in The Point apartments, and Shaker Mohsen Alsidran, 20 Monticello Gardens, Apt. 304-A, each were charged with trespassing on school property. Both remained in Orient Road Jail on Friday evening. Bail for each was set at $250.
"Both defendants gave several versions of the reason they took a school bus to a high school," said Hillsborough County sheriff's spokesman J.D. Callaway.
"They said they wanted to go to Wharton to look around, and then they said they wanted to go there to have some fun, and then they said they wanted to enroll in the English classes there," Callaway said.
"We're not sure if this was a situation of them just being new to this country, or if they were confused or what it was," Callaway said. "We were unsure as to exactly what the final reason was, but it did cause great concern for the students on the bus and for us. One of the guys was wearing shorts with a black trench coat."
While on the bus, the men laughed and spoke in Arabic, Callaway said.
Ahmed Bedier, Tampa director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said the men likely meant no harm and that because "they were from Saudi Arabia, that escalated the situation."
He blamed the incident on cultural differences.
"They didn't differentiate between a school bus and public transportation," he said.
The bus picked up the students and the men at about 7 a.m. Friday at the corner of Fletcher Avenue and 42nd Street, deputies said.
The bus driver, a substitute, reached her supervisors by telephone. They relayed the information to Wharton High resource Deputy Mike Eastman, who met the bus when it arrived at school at about 7:30 a.m., and detained the men.
The sheriff's Homeland Security Division, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's Regional Domestic Security Task Force, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the FBI all were notified.
Almanajam and Alsidran at first told deputies they were from Morocco, but later admitted being from Saudi Arabia, deputies said. They said they were enrolled at the English Language Institute at the University of South Florida.
Both arrived in the United States about six months ago and have student visas that require them to be enrolled at the English Language Institute, Callaway said.
Authorities searched the apartments of the two men and found nothing of concern, he said.
TAMPA - A judge revoked bail for two Saudi men arrested Friday for boarding a school bus and riding to Wharton High.
Initially, Mana Saleh Almanajam, 23, and Shaker Mohsen Alsidran, 20, were held in Orient Road Jail on bails of $250 each on misdemeanor trespassing charges. Circuit Judge Monica Sierra decided to hold them at a court appearance Saturday so investigators could dig deeper into their pasts.
A friend of the two University of South Florida students tried to post their bail Friday night, said Ahmed Bedier, Tampa director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, but a jail clerk told the friend that they couldn't be released because they were under an immigration hold until a hearing Saturday morning.
At the hearing, Sierra agreed with a prosecutor that she needed to know more about them before she could feel comfortable releasing them.
The prosecutor said neither man carried identification when they were arrested at Wharton High School, and authorities haven't had an opportunity to gather background information beyond a check of state records.
Almanajam and Alsidran appeared confused by the proceedings and smiled nervously as they stood behind a public defender's table.
Investigators say the men boarded a school bus at Fletcher Avenue and 42nd Street, sat down and began speaking in Arabic. Their behavior concerned the driver, a substitute, who alerted the school district.
The bus was met at Wharton High School by a swarm of officers from the sheriff's Homeland Security Division, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's Regional Domestic Security Task Force, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the FBI.
Bedier called the court's decision to revoke bond an overreaction and tied to the men being Arabic and Muslim.
"The only reason [this happened] is because of who they are, and that's wrong," he said. "How is it that they can say they can't find out who these kids are when they've searched their homes and found nothing? ... Thus far, it doesn't seem like they've been afforded their full rights for something as simple as getting on the wrong bus."
He questioned why the driver didn't tell them not to board if their appearance was suspicious.
Officials who questioned the men Friday said they at first said they were from Morocco but later admitted being from Saudi Arabia. Both arrived in the country six months ago and are enrolled at the English Language Institute at USF. Their reasons for getting on the bus ranged from wanting to enroll in easier English classes to having some fun.
Bedier said the men got on the bus out of a cultural misunderstanding.
"They don't have yellow school buses just for children in their home country," he said.
The judge scheduled a bond review hearing for Tuesday and asked that an Arabic interpreter be present. There was no interpreter Saturday.
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Scary stuff this. Random aliens, boarding a bus for children, are your kids safe...
Seriously, they were confused and in bad need of some English and culture lessons, not to mention a public transit schedule. How do you say, "Yellow bus for children!" in Arabic?
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