Story 6
by M.C.
Leaping Lizards!
submitted 9/18/98
We all know, because it has been drilled into us school bus drivers that the only animals allowed on the bus are well, you know.
I was boarding elementary students for an afternoon run at Marshall
Elem. School. This special education route consisted of about 10
emotionally handicapped children. One boy asked if he could take the
lizard he had found at school home on the bus with him. I told him I was
sorry, that it was against the rules and that the lizard would probably be
happier if he released it into the nearby bushes. He then started to cry and
complain to his teacher. The teacher came over to me and pleaded, let
him take it home. I told her no, it was against the rules and that 10
emotionally disturbed kids and a live lizard was a potential disaster.
She said I was being totally unreasonable and that "I was just being mean."
I said ,"well, let me ask dispatch," I was of course, humoring her. I
turned up the two-way (radio) loud so she could hear dispatch say in no certain terms could I allow transportation of the lizard on the bus. End of discussion, or so I thought. She then walked away with the boy. A minute later they
walked back to the bus and said to me he's all set to go home now. I couldn't
help but notice the squirming in the boy's shirt pocket. I asked to look in
his pocket. He started to cry again. The teacher then began to yell at me
for being a power monger for picking on this child.
I am still shocked that this teacher was assisting this child in
lying to me and helping him try to break an obvious safety rule, not to
mention undermining my authority on the bus.
It happened to me.
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