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KQED's Forum

'Chowchilla' Reexamines Harrowing 1976 School Bus Kidnapping

KQED's Forum

KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6656 Ratings

🗓️ 19 January 2024

⏱️ 56 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In 1976, in the Central Valley town of Chowchilla, 26 children and their school bus driver were kidnapped by three masked men and held captive for twenty-eight hours until they managed to free themselves and escape. Although no one was physically harmed, the incident took a severe emotional toll on the children and would go on to influence how we address childhood trauma. A new CNN documentary takes a fresh look at the event, getting first hand accounts from the survivors and recreating the harrowing ordeal. We’ll speak with the film’s director and one of the survivors about the impact of the kidnapping and its aftermath. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:43.1

From KQVD in San Francisco, I'm Nina Kim.

1:02.8

Coming up on forum, a new CNN documentary revisits a kidnapping in California

1:07.9

that upended a Central Valley town and gripped the nation. In 1976,

1:13.8

26 schoolchildren from Chowchilla were taken from their school bus and held captive underground.

1:20.0

The children and their bus driver would escape, but for decades they'd bear not only the scars

1:24.5

of the harrowing ordeal, but also the lack of understanding of

1:28.0

how to treat their trauma.

1:30.5

This hour, we meet one of the survivors of the kidnapping and the director of the film

1:34.9

called Chao Chila.

1:36.8

Do you remember it?

1:38.3

Join us.

1:39.3

Welcome to Forum. I'm Mina Kim. And listeners, a note that our show today may be especially disturbing to children.

1:54.0

Jennifer Brown-Hide was just nine years old in 1976 when her school bus was hijacked by three men.

...

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