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Jamila Glauber, who described her ethnicity as Middle Eastern, said she felt the incident involved the color of her skin more than her eating-on-board offense.

"I felt like Rosa Parks," Glauber told the Empire. "I hate to think of it that way. But this happened. There were three other boys from the university on that bus and no one helped me because I looked different. I had to ride that bus to get to my son and I wasn't going to get off of it. There was just no need to be so inhuman."

"He works well with people here and we have all kinds of people here," Wieting said. "He's a by-the-book kind of guy."

Glauber said she rides the bus from the University of Alaska Southeast campus to Harborview Elementary School to pick up her son every school day. With bus pass in hand, she caught the 3 p.m. bus near the university on Friday. Glauber showed her pass and took a seat. Glauber and Wieting said she had had a run-in with the driver previously when she forgot her bus pass and the driver would not allow her to ride.

This time, Glauber was sitting near the front of the bus, near enough to see the bus driver and to be seen by him. She removed a bite-size Snickers from her bag, unwrapped it and took a bite, according to her account. The bus driver told Glauber that eating food was prohibited on the bus.

But it was too late, she said, and there was only a half a bite left.

"I ate it," she said. "It was only two bites. It was a small Snickers bar. It wasn't like I was eating a sandwich or something. I didn't know candy is food."

The driver stopped the bus near the campus and told Glauber to get off. She refused. He drove on. At Glacier Highway and Back Loop Road, he stopped, opened the door and again asked her to leave.

Before Friday, no one has been asked to leave a city bus for eating, Wieting said, nor had the driver ever kicked off any of the 400 passengers he drives on average each day. No complaints have been lodged against the driver, the transit supervisor said.

"She was mumbling things under her breath," Wieting said. "He couldn't hear what she was saying, but he knew her intent. She wasn't compliant with the rules of the bus, she was being discourteous and trying to push his buttons, which is a reason to be asked to leave the bus."

"I was totally shocked," Glauber said. "I've been riding the bus for a year. There is nothing on the bus that said you could not eat food except in the code of conduct. It is not posted anywhere. What, are we supposed to read minds now?

"He kept saying things to me after the candy was already gone. He was clearly trying to provoke me, and I just kept my mouth shut because I had to get to my son."

Wieting said the rules are posted on every bus. Though Wieting acknowledged she couldn't un-eat the candy bar, she was not compliant. Therefore, in accordance with procedure, the driver called the police.

Police Sgt. Kevin Siska said officers met the bus at Nugget Mall and assessed the situation. They asked the driver to allow Glauber to continue to ride, Siska said. Glauber could have been given a trespassing citation because she had been asked to leave the bus and didn't, Siska said. Trespassing is a misdemeanor punishable by up to 90 days in jail and a maximum $1,000 fine.

Police did not pursue charges or issue a citation.

Police Sgt. Ben Coronell said police are called to buses about four times a year to cite or remove passengers who are unruly, intoxicated, under the influence of other drugs or mentally ill. To his knowledge, Coronell said, police have never been called to remove someone eating on a bus.

Melanie Plenda can be reached at mplenda@juneauempire.com.