mechitza madness

Was anyone else on the bus some years ago, perhaps 15 or so, when a well-dressed woman went positively berserk because there was a mechitza on the bus. It seemed to offend her deeply, the mere existence of it This event took place before the much-publicized law suit and legal settlement.

One moment, she was sitting there like any other passenger and the next moment she had ripped down the mechitza in a rage. The bus pulled into a park and ride, to wait for the police. But why? And what would the police know about such things?

Riders trooped off the bus,dismayed at being made late to work that morning. Some of the women (frum might I assume?) actually urged one man (also observant) to assault the complaining woman. No blows were struck, I hasten to add.

Did she ever bring her lawsuit? It seemed to me that she had had a really bad morning and wanted others to feel as she did; perhaps she was a civil libertarian with a point to make; but if so, why the rage? I never saw her before or since. That mght suggest that it was a case of mental illness, but equally suggests some purely political agenda. Does anyone know?

Interestingly, despite all the hostility she expresed and the hostility the riders expressed toward her, everyone waited for the next bus. The company sent another bus, (also with a mechitzah) and the rest of the passengers rode onto Manhattan. The complainant disappeared into a police car. Did she go to a local hospital, a lawyer's office, back home? And in any event, why did our bus have to stay behind, as if the bus had done something wrong?

The whole event seems strange to me now, like a poorly written play, one in which the charaters' motivations make no sense.

I wonder whether other manifestations of Orthodox observance troubled her as much?