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An Ohio bus driver who went viral for a foul-mouthed tirade at students has become the inspiration for a T-shirt — as well as a nearly $60,000 fundraiser trying to help her retire.
Jackie Miller told 3News that her rant — in which she threatened to “start kicking some f–kin’ serious ass” because she was “done with the s–t” — followed at least two years of needling by a core group of kids on her Amherst route.
“I’m sorry for the way this went down, I truly am,” the driver said of the rant on a particularly “challenging” day, which she claims happened after a student sprayed perfume and sparked “a horrible asthma attack.”
“I do apologize for my actions on that day. But — I won’t take it back,” she said of the scolding that ended with her resignation.
“This is a plight of all bus drivers. … We are treated with such lack of respect.”
Miller was interviewed by the local outlet at a local clothing store that has created a T-shirt about the episode, donating $5 from all sales of the $25 shirt to the now-jobless driver.
The shirt — in black or green — has a yellow drawing of a school bus along with one of Miller’s catchiest comments on the clip: “My foot’s gonna be so far up your ass it’s going to dangle from your nose.”
“We all kind of just felt for her in that moment,” Mistakes on the Lakes store owner Jacqui Adkins of her fundraising shirt.
“Like, we’ve all had bad days, we’ve all gone through hardships and I think our hearts just kind of bled for her,” she said.
The shirt sales will add to an even bigger fundraiser that has already raised more than $59,000 online, with more than 2,500 people donating to help her retire and go on vacation.
Organizer Jeff Grob decried how school bus drivers are “underpaid and under-appreciated” and how “kids these days are out of control and no one is allowed to reprimand them in fear of losing their job.”
“After so many years of being treated horribly by kids and underpaid, this bus driver was done with it and went Red [Forman] on them,” he said of the notoriously combative character from “That ’70s Show” who also regularly threatened to put his foot in people’s behinds.
“I’m on her side and if it was my kids, make em walk!” wrote Grob.
The fundraiser was “to help her pay for some time off and for all the years of loyal dedicated service.”
“We applaud her for tolerating as much as she has and are on her team! #Teambusdriver.”
Despite the push to help her retire, Miller told 3News that she hopes to continue driving buses — though likely just for adults.
“There’s just no words to say how grateful that I am for the people who have supported me,” she said. “It restores your faith in humanity. It makes you think that not all people are bad, that there’s really good people in the world.”
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