Won't somebody please think of the children???!!!
Posted on 11/02/2006 12:14:21 PM PST by MeneMeneTekelUpharsin
SEATTLE — A school bus driver fired after she reportedly made an obscene gesture at President Bush has filed a union grievance in an attempt to get her job back. The 43-year-old driver, whose name was not released, was driving middle school children back to school after a zoo visit on June 16 when the president and Republican Rep. Dave Reichert drove slowly by in a motorcade. From the bus, the children waved; with the windows down in their car, Bush and Reichert waved back.
That's when the driver gave the president the finger, according to Reichert and Issaquah superintendent Janet Barry. "The congressman hadn't seen it, but the president turned to him and said, 'That one's not a fan,' " said Reichert spokeswoman Kimberly Cadena. Reichert later called Barry to tell her about the incident, but the bus driver had already been fired. District officials learned about the incident after the driver boasted to colleagues about it, Cadena said.
District spokeswoman Sara Niegowski said the driver has filed a wrongful termination grievance through the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. The union did not return calls seeking comment. Niegowski said the firing was not politically motivated. "The bus driver was not terminated for making an obscene gesture at the president. The bus driver was terminated for making an obscene gesture in view of the students," Niegowski said. "That's not the role modeling we need for our students."
Giving the finger on a school bus should be grounds for dismissal, no matter who it's directed at.
Ok, so you did but were fired for expressing your "free speach"?
I would have fired her for flipping off Hugo Chavez or Fidel Castro.
She has no business flipping off anyone while she is driving children around in a bus with the name of the School District emblazoned on the side.
I do hope you don't use that kind of logic on your bar exam. The facts are that she was fired for flipping off someone. You have no facts to justify your conclusion that it was a ruse and the she was fired because it was the president. I suspect that nobody who was involved in that firing voted for Bush and that everyone involved is a NEA democrat. But the fact is that the bus driver's BEHAVIOR was unacceptable, and no matter who that gesture was pointed at, she deserved to be fired.
Nope.
As a purported adult, she shouldn't be engaging in this behavior while a busful of children is in her charge.
If she wants to run screaming through the streets waving an "Impeach Bush" sign over her head on her own time, that's fine.
Credibility is an issue of fact for a jury.
Where is the evidence that the district is lying?
My goodness! What was this from!
"Credibility is an issue of fact for a jury."
Just stop it. You're bleeding profusely.
The pig can feed at the public trough yet her name can not be released?
I say if she is proud enough to sing her name on the back of a public paycheck, everything she accomplishes during the day should be public knowledge.
If you do not want the public to know what you did ... don't work for the public.
Where do I file my grievance against grievances?
You do not have the right to say "F- you" in front of my babies.
Discovery hasn't occurred yet.
BDS requires all rational thought to be suppressed!
Won't somebody please think of the children???!!!
"And if one of my employees flips off Howard Dean himself, while she's on the clock, I fire her."
But it'd be worth it.
Say you are publishing a book about birds, the person you hire to write about birds writes about fish because she finds them more interesting than birds.
I suppose you would then have articles about fish in your bird book as to not offend the "Free Speech" rights of the gal you hired.
The driver was hired to drive the bus and be courteous towards the public, not to be out there representing the bus company, flipping anyone off. Just as your writer was hired to write about birds.
The driver can flip anyone one off on his own time, just as your writer can sell his fish stories to anyone else.
His Free Speech rights, to write about fish, do not compel you to buy his fish stories, as far as I can tell, why do you think otherwise?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.