Two hours before sunrise Tuesday, what should have been an empty sidewalk outside the LAUSD Van Nuys bus yard on Roscoe Boulevard was bustling.
Dozens of drivers, who would normally be streaming through the gates toward their empty yellow school buses, instead marched back and forth in the rain under a jumble of umbrellas, in the glare of TV news lights. Holding signs demanding respect, they chanted, "If we don't get it, shut it down."
So far they haven't gotten it — that is, a new contract with hefty raises and better working conditions — so they have indeed shut down the country's second-largest public school system.
