The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime that Changed Their Lives (2017)

Sasha is a junior at a progressive private high school in Oakland, California. Sasha is, by all accounts, an unusually smart and perceptive person, raised in a loving home by progressive, kind, and gentle parents. Sasha has a diagnosis of Asperger’s, which Slater only briefly mentions, and a fascination with language, among many other things. In middle school, Sasha chose that name to replace the one they were given at birth and announced their identification as agender and the preference for pronouns they/their/theirs.

Through the course of the story Sasha, Slater traces Sasha’s budding confidence in themself and developing relationships. At the time of the fire, Sasha is doing well: happy, with good friends and a bright future. Sasha has not experienced any significant opposition to their sartorial choices, and despite the 57 bus being chaotic, their love of public transit and busses helps them feel comfortable enough to fall asleep.

Richard’s actions change Sasha’s life in obvious and more subtle ways. As Sasha recovers from their injuries, graduates from high school, and heads off to college, their experiences are tainted by the shadow of the ongoing trial. Sasha is tied to Richard now, and despite Sasha’s parents’ efforts to help Sasha move on, Sasha’s preternatural maturity and empathy mean they will continue to follow the trial and Richard’s progress.

Sasha is presented as an almost eerily adult person, even as a teenager, mentally and emotionally. They are an excellent and accomplished student, and they gradually become more comfortable with their unasked-for role as a semi-public figure—a rallying cry against hate crimes. The incident on the bus impacts Sasha’s life but does not necessarily shape it. 

Richard is, in many ways, a stereotype: raised by a single mother, not academically inclined, and caught up in the poor decisions of his peers. While Richard routinely insists he is not a bad person, he does do bad things. Richard also does good things, and Slater makes sure to show those moments, ultimately portraying Richard as a complicated young man, neither the hate-fueled monster, nor the beleaguered victim of a difficult life.

Slater makes Richard a model for the question as to whether a juvenile can really comprehend the potential consequences of their actions and, therefore, face adult-sized punishment. Richard’s experience with the criminal justice system is an example of the way a move toward harsher sentences for juvenile offenders can have ramifications for the rest of their lives. Slater encourages the reader to consider whether and how Richard’s punishment is going to impact his future opportunities, and how that might be counter-productive to the goal of rehabilitation.

Richard’s letters of apology to Sasha and their family are especially poignant because they are not delivered until more than a year after the incident; had the family seen them sooner, it’s possible they would have been more supportive of Richard in court and all parties might have found a sense of justice and peace sooner.

Richard’s skin color and economic background shape his interactions with the law, arguably to his disadvantage. His social context, including the death of his friend Skeet and the behaviors of his peer group, also impact his behavior and values—he does not have the same positive influences Sasha does. He gets attention and support from Kaprice, but she isn’t enough to stand against the pressures of the rest of the people around him. Richard’s actions that day on the bus will shape the rest of his life—it will be very difficult for him to leave those scars behind. 

Sasha’s parents are extremely supportive of their child, and in some ways, they take a back seat to Sasha in terms of decision-making. Each has had their own small experiences with gender identity—Debbie was part of a group that agitated to be allowed to wear pants when she was younger, and Karl was chased by a group of men in a pickup truck when in his early 20s.

Debbie and Karl are devastated by Sasha’s attack but have trouble deciding how to feel about Richard. They are, to some, surprisingly sympathetic and reluctant to see him charged as an adult. When they learn about Richard’s letters, they are even more certain that they would not have wanted his trial to play out the way it did. While Debbie and Karl aren’t rich, they’re comparatively well-off and have a stable home environment, which, Slater implies, is part of why they are so empathetic toward Richard and Jasmine: they seem to understand that Richard lived in circumstances beyond his control and that he is also a victim, in some ways.

Richard’s mother raises him mostly by herself—his father is present in his life but not in their home. Jasmine wants the best for her son, wanting more for him than she has, but she’s unable to combat the negative influences of his peers. Jasmine is stalwart through Richard’s trial, but even just attending his appearances is hard, as she struggles to get time off from work—a challenge neither Debbie nor Karl seem to have.

Soon after Richard is charged, Jasmine wants to meet Debbie and Karl, even Sasha, and apologize on behalf of her son. While Sasha’s family is initially wary of forming an acquaintance with Richard’s family, they end up forging an alliance of sorts: both have children going through a lot of pain and suffering, and the knowledge of their own feelings makes them more empathetic for each other. 

Kaprice is important to Slater’s narrative because she is living proof it is possible to escape the gangs, crime, and poverty of East Oakland. After getting her college degree, Kaprice returns to Oakland to work with the troubled youth of Oakland High. Kaprice is a fierce and committed protector and advocate for her students, but whatever she can do for them may not be enough. Richard should have been one of her success stories, except in the blink of an eye, he went in exactly the opposite direction. Slater invites the reader to consider what could have made a difference for Richard if not Kaprice—what resources, what help, could have been made available to Richard to change the course of his life for the better.

A childhood friend of Richard’s, Cherie was clearly an important source for Slater. She is brought in repeatedly to provide color commentary on Richard’s life, his friends, and the fates that awaited many of them: “Skeet was dead. Ashley was a mom. Hadari and Jesse were serving time” (267). Cherie hasn’t made it out completely, but she has a unique and mature perspective on what has happened to her friend group, and Slater invokes her several times during the narrative.