Link.
Can’t say I wouldn’t have done the same thing, but it really isn’t proper modeling behavior for a bus driver with a bus-load of kids.
But I would have paid money to have seen Bush’s face at that moment. 
See, another one for “So you want to be the Bus Guy?”
I agree, no matter how I feel about whoever got flipped off, I’m firing the guy too. And my union wouldn’t have a leg to stand on in a grievance, because listed in the handbook, referred to in the CBA is specific language making obscene gestures in the presence of kids a terminable offense.
MBG - Who just yesterday had to tell a male driver that he was not wearing the Big-boobed, short skirted floozy Halloween costume on MY bus.
Like the writing wasn’t on the wall already.
I think it’s a non-issue. I don’t like Bush, but that bus driver should, and probably would have been fired for flipping anybody the bird. You just don’t do that when you’re at work, numbnuts[sup]*[/sup].
- the bus driver, not you, Dear Reader
If i had a face-to-face opportunity to flip Bush the bird, it would probably be worth getting fired.
Exactly.
I agree that flipping the bird is bad role modeling and grounds for termination. We should start by firing this guy.
You know, Dio, I was just thinking about that incident. I’ve seen the video of it a couple of times, but never without any context. What was going on there?
I don’t know the exact circumstances but I believe it was taken from when he was waiting to give a television address. He was goofing off in front of the camera and flipped the bird. Somehow the video made it to the internet. Maybe it was taken from a satellite feed?
This is a local story. The evening news interviewed the woman’s supervisor. They fired her, not JUST for the finger incident, but for a series of infractions.
The incident happened in June. She bragged about it to other drivers, who reported her. They fired her on the spot.
She filed a grevience with her union to get her job back. I doubt she will.
The busses aren’t owned by the school district, but by contract with a private company.
Dave Reichert, is using the story now to get a bit of free air time for his campaign.
Er, never with any context. Sigh, the result of posting at work.
That makes sense, kind of a “we being bombing in 5 minutes” but without the wit. The footage looks like it’s from a while back, maybe his governor days.
Anyhows, I can’t get too worked up about this firing. If she’d been fired for flipping the bird in front of her kids to a taxi driver who’d cut her off, I’d think that was probably justifiable, too.
Oh, yeah, I beleive that. Because I’m wearing my Republican Credibility Hat. And yes, it is made of tinfoil. Why’d you ask?
I don’t understand…
She was fired months ago. I remember the original news story. Even then her supervisor said she had had a number of problems. The fact that she flipped off the President wasn’t the issue in the begining. It was that she did it in front of a bus full of grade school kids.
Here’s a link to the local news story
I’ve got no problems with the driver being fired - I just don’t like the ‘we must protect the children’ reason. Our society already uses that excuse for too many things as it is.
Aother alternate view: Bush was supposedly the only person who actually SAW the gesture, who then told the Congressman who was riding with him [paraphrase] ‘Did you see that? That bus driver fliped me off!’. So if the firing is based on someone complaining who DIDN’T actually see the event, maybe she can save her job. (Can you just see it? GWB subpoenaed to testify in a case like this!)
I think she MUST have been bragging about it, though - I don’t think that anyone could remember, as they were driving by, both the school district AND the number of the bus being passed, especially sincce they would have been pretty much past the bus when they got to the driver.
To quote author Peg Bracken: I agree with the sentiment but deplore the bad manners.
I feel confident that if the bus driver had not done that, all of the students on the bus, who had never seen that gesture before, would never see it again or ever have occasion to use it in their lifetimes.
That’s what we are protecting our children against – bad influences that cause irreparable damage and create juvenile delinquents.
Just in case – :rolleyes:
I would have gained some respect for Bush if he’d followed this up with, “Now, watch this!” and given that bus driver the finger right back. 
The congressman claims he saw it, but didn’t complain until this week, that’s (mostly) why it’s in the news now, 3 months later. :rolleyes: