It’s Tuesday of the first full week of school. Everything is going great – busses are rolling, the food’s being served, and our facilities team is knocking it out of the park. And I’ve been called an asshole three times… just in one day.
“This is bullshit, you’re an asshole!”
7:45 AM – We worked collaboratively with a few vendors to make a large event happen behind our elementary school over the weekend. One of the vendors had still parked some larger vehicles in our bus zone in the morning.
They were well aware of the restriction and times for our operational schedule. I asked them to (kindly, but expeditiously) move so our buses could drop off kids in the morning.
✅ Just managing my area of responsibility.
“Thanks a lot, asshole! Now I’ll be late for work!”
8:34 AM – I was directing traffic at our elementary school, making sure parents dropping their kids off got out of their cars safely, and traffic moved around freely, in and out of the constant stream of (the much larger) school buses.
It’s a tight intersection. It gets busy in the morning.
I kindly asked a parent who drove out of line to stay put while three of our buses passed on the way to drop off kids. Something like “Hey, sir, would you mind waiting for a few while our buses pass?”
✅ Just trying to help.
“Hey, asshole!”
2:55 PM – I was taking the Ladies Varsity Golf Team to their match on a school bus, filling in at our Transportation department as we’re very short on staff. Yes, I have a CDL. Yes, I can drive a school bus.
Heading south, a car in the oncoming lane moved across the double yellow lines, and I laid on the air horn the give them some notice before we crashed into each other.
I was taking evasive maneuvers when they finally figured it out and got a nice “shout-out” from the driver.
✅ Apparently, it was my fault.
This was all in one day.
If I may offer a gentle reminder to all those who see school only as “where the kids go in the middle of the day” – lots of us work here. For many, it’s our calling, our passion, and our life’s work.
We’re up early in the morning and check on our responsibilities well into the evening. My phone’s never on silent. We have events on Saturdays and Sundays, too.
The “hey, you, this is bullshit” or “why can’t I get to the front of the line?” or “stop wasting my tax dollars” builds up.
When you read in the news about school bus driver shortages, or districts that can’t find enough teachers for their classrooms, do you know why that is?
It’s not because we don’t love what we do.
It’s all the pressure that’s built up over the last few years of being stressed, over-worked, over-provisioned, under-funded, and with more and more mandates piling on.
And guess what?
That parent drop-off line isn’t managing itself. The golf team can’t drive themselves. Buildings aren’t cleaned automatically.
It takes people. And the people are tired of your “you know what…[insert expletive here]“
So the next time you get a chance to interact with a public school employee… what about a “hey, thanks for making it happen!” or just kindly wave to us?
Our hearts burn 🔥 for school. We love ❤️ what we do. Don’t ruin it with an ignorant slur.