A bus driver, unable to get an incident off his mind, took to Facebook and made a post about an encounter he had with a middle schooler. He was told to take it back or get fired. He chose the latter. Did he do the right thing?
Haralson County Middle School (Photo Credit: Screenshot/WGCL)
Johnny Cook was a school bus driver in Haralson, Georgia, until one Facebook post cost him his job. When Johnny got home from completing his bus route one evening, the Georgia man, who also trains horses, headed for the stables. While trying to work with an animal, however, one story kept replaying in his head.
No matter how hard he tried, he was unable to shake it, so he decided to do something about it. Letting others know what he had experienced, Johnny admitted he was “feeling flustered” as he sat down at his computer, hoping to ensure he never heard another story like the one he was told earlier that day.
Johnny Cook (Photo Credit: Screenshot/WGCL)
“A middle schooler got on my bus this evening and said, ‘Mr. Johnny, I’m hungry,’” the bus driver wrote on social media. “Why are you hungry, buddy?” Johnny recalled asking the child. “Didn’t you eat lunch?” He wasn’t prepared for the answer he was about to get.
“He said, ‘No sir, I didn’t have any money on my account,” Johnny furthered, describing the exchange with the hungry student. Dumfounded, he clarified the kid’s statement, asking, “They wouldn’t let you charge it?” He was again told, “No, sir.” This didn’t sit well with Johnny Cook for a number of reasons.
Stock image (Photo Credit: Pixabay)
“This child is already on reduced lunch, and we can’t let him eat. Are you kidding me?” a flustered Johnny continued in his Facebook post. “I’m certain there was leftover food thrown away today. But, kids were turned away because they didn’t have .40 on their account,” he added. “As a taxpayer, I would much rather feed a child than throw it away.”
Then, he attempted to make sure this never happened to another hungry child. “The next time we can’t feed a kid for forty cents, please call me,” he wrote, publicly posting his own phone number. “We will scrape up the money,” he added sarcastically, before concluding, “This is what the world has come to.”
In no time, “about 200 people hit it, liked it, loved it, did all the things that Facebook does, and it just caught fire,” Johnny Cook recalled. And, it didn’t stop. But, not everyone supported his sentiments, as he was about to find out when he was called in for a meeting with the school’s superintendent the next day.
According to Haralson County Superintendent Brett Stanton, he investigated the incident thoroughly and things didn’t happen the way Johnny Cook’s post alleged. Not only was Stanton adamant that the child would have been offered a bagged lunch, but he also claims surveillance video shows the child in question didn’t go through the lunch line at all. So, the bus driver was given an ultimatum. He could take down the post and apologize or be fired.