A former Ohio school bus driver who went viral for shouting at a group of unruly children and subsequently resigned said she is floored by the outpouring of support she has received, including more than $100,000 raised for her 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.
A fellow Ohio resident, Jeff Grob, started a GoFundMe page for the bus driver “to help her pay for some time off and for all the years of loyal dedicated service.” The GoFundMe page sat at more than $116,000 as of Sunday.
“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,” Grob, who did not know Miller before the incident, told WBNS. “We’re small communities, but we’re strong communities, and we stick together.”
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Video of Miller shouting at a group of students on a bus last month went viral, with Miller saying the kids acted out “the minute” they boarded the bus and one student allegedly sprayed perfume that caused her to have a “horrible asthma attack.”
“I had to stop the bus, grab my inhaler and try to get my lungs to open up again,” Miller previously told WKYC. “I had all the kids open up all the windows. They know this.”
She said that a group of students on her bus would often act out and that she hit her breaking point.
“Goddamn it, how much more do you expect me to f—— take?” Miller was heard saying at one point in the two-minute clip.
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“I’m sick of all of this s—. I’m done with it. I’m going to start kicking some f—— serious a–,” Miller 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.”
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.
Some commented on the fundraising page that the level of disrespect from certain students is frustrating, and they sympathized with Miller’s outburst.
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“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.
Critics have also sounded off that Miller should not have used profanities on kids, which Miller agreed with, but said she will not “take a word” back.
“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.”
