A viral video of a bus driver putting unruly student passengers in their place has led to a tremendous outpouring of support after the incident led the driver to resign.
The now-former Ohio school bus driver, Jackie Miller, was recorded losing her cool after likely dealing with the same brats for years. After the encounter, she resigned but was stunned when her community raised over $100,000 on GoFundMe to help her get some paid time off and support her in retirement.
“I’m nobody. I’m just a little old granny bus driver, and these people doing this for me is amazing,” Jackie Miller told WBNS.
The GoFundMe, which has reached more than $120,000 as of this writing, was started by a fellow Ohioian who recognized the challenges faced by bus drivers and other thankless folks who tried to make a difference in their ungrateful communities.
“We’ve had some problems on our bus with our own little kids who are 7 and 8, so I just saw this as an opportunity to bring light to the bigger problem,” Jeff Grob, creator of the fundraising effort, said to local media outlet WBNS. “We’re small communities, but we’re strong communities, and we stick together.”
The video of Miller showed her confronting a group of students on her bus route last month, who said the kids acted out as soon as they got on the bus, including one student who was said to have sprayed perfume. Miller said the perfume caused her to have an asthma attack.
Here was the moment Jackie realized she was done driving buses:
“I had to stop the bus, grab my inhaler and try to get my lungs to open up again,” Miller had previously shared with another local outlet, WKYC. “I had all the kids open up all the windows. They know this.”
Miller said that the kids had often tested her patience and that this moment was just the final straw.
“Goddamn it, how much more do you expect me to f—— take?” Miller can be heard screaming at one point in the video.
“I’m sick of all of this s—. I’m done with it. I’m going to start kicking some f—— serious a–,” she then said. “Do you hear me? My foot’s going to be so far up your goddamn a–, it’s going to dangle out your goddamn nose.”
Fox News followed the story, writing:
She resigned from her position as a school bus driver and was soon met with people across the country showing their support for her and the challenges some people face while working with children. The tirade even inspired a line of shirts and hoodies emblazoned with quotes from the video, with $5 of each sale going toward Miller.
Reacting to the overwhelming show of support, Miller said that it restored her faith in people.
“Every day you see horrible things, and something like this happens, and it just restores your faith that there are so many wonderful people out there,” Miller told WBNS.
And, as observed by everyone, Miller’s language was peppered with unsavory words. When asked how she felt about swearing in front of the young passengers, she said she regretted it but also stood by her reaction.
“Oh, I don’t agree with the language I used either. I really do regret that, but like I said before, I won’t take a word of that back,” Miller said. “There are people out there that are angry, and I understand if the shoe were on the other foot I would be, too, until I found out exactly what had happened.”
Featured image: Screen shot from embedded YouTube video.
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