Kids can be cruel. But, she is an adult.
There's no excuse for an adult, especially in that position, to say something like that to a child, under any circumstances.
If she had said something like that to my child in my presence, I would have told her that she had better hope her last paycheck was a large one.
If she had said something like that in my wife's presence, she would have had lost her dentures on the floor of the bus.
You make a good point, but if my parents had caught a 12 year old me mouthing off to any adult under any circumstances I wouldn’t have sat down for a month. (And for the record, I’m pretty thankful that they never had a clue as to half the stuff that went on on my school bus.)(Or at least, I don’t think they had a clue, as I get older and rethink it, I realize they knew a lot more than I thought they did at the time.)
So the driver Maybe gets fired your wife gets arrested for battery, your child learns that violence is the best first course of action and you possibly loose your house and life savings in a law suit.
Yeah I think we can call that plan "B". These parents handled it correctly.
I really love the way that the anonymous Internet invites people to posture.
I’ll add one other point, if I had gone to my parents complaining that the bus driver said something mean to me, I know exactly what their response would have been....”What did you say to her first?”