It took dashcam footage released months later to redeem this innocent bus driver who’s career is ruined.
Edmonton community looked on as their nightly news showed a bus driver kicking an eighth grade student off the bus 10 blocks from his stop, seemingly without reason.
In the footage the news showcased students stood up and shouted, “Hey! What are you doing!?” to the driver, but he continued with his action anyway. Immediately, the driver was quickly terminated by school officials.
But the bus company had a different side to the story. They chose to release the full dashcam footage on June 8th showing the bus driver was wrongfully terminated.
Turns out, before the bus driver kicked the boy off the bus he was smacked in the head while in the drivers seat with a hockey bag by the eighth grade boy. Taking into consideration the safety of everyone else on the bus, the bus driver swiftly took action and got the boy off the bus where he could have endangered everyone on the road.
He had been a bus driver for five years and driving this particular route for two weeks. It had a very high turnover rate for other drivers as it was said to be a very difficult route with troublesome kids and very little authority — and boy, was that reputation right! When a bus driver acts in the best interest and safety of everyone and gets fired immediately you really have to wonder why.
Once the truth was revealed, the school board stated that the bus driver should not have been fired but has said nothing about him getting his job back. It’s also been said that the principal of the school will be dealing with the student.
It’s clear that when people instantly crack under media’s pressure without listening to both sides of the story, we all lose out on celebrating local heroes acting in the best way they know how.
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