Bus Driver Fired for Helping Hungry Student Fights Back With Lawsuit

[rug]

Johnny Cook, in a tribute photo for a public Facebook page. Photo: Facebook

By Beth Greenfield, 6 hours ago

A school-bus driver in rural Georgia who was fired after sticking up for a hungry student last spring has joined forces with the American Civil Liberties Union to file a lawsuit against the school district on Thursday for “violating [his] free speech rights.”

The bumpy ride for the driver, Johnny Cook of Tallapoosa, began last May, when he posted a Facebook message expressing concern for a middle-school student who told him he was hungry after being denied a school lunch for not having the necessary 40 cents on his account. “This child is already on reduced lunch and we can't let him eat. Are you kidding me?” he had written in part, quickly galvanizing concern about school-lunch policies in the district, where 62 percent of students are eligible for free or reduced meals. He also angered Haralson County superintendent Brett Stanton, who, according to the suit, gave Cook a choice two days later: recant and apologize, or be terminated for violating the district’s social networking policy. Cook chose the latter.

The school district has not responded to requests for comment from Yahoo Shine, but it has gone on record in the past, claiming that the student was never really denied his lunch in the first place. “In talking with the middle school principal and the cafeteria manager, that just did not happen,” Stanton told Fox Atlanta in May. The school later released surveillance video that showed the student entering the cafeteria but not attempting to go through the lunch line.

But that, notes the ACLU's Chad Brock, is “completely irrelevant to this case,” as Cook “reasonably believed” the story based on similar stories he had heard from other students in the past. “He was speaking out as a taxpayer, on a matter of public concern,” Brock tells Yahoo Shine, adding that his firing is “one of the most egregious examples of a school district infringing upon the rights of public employees that we’ve seen in years.”

http://shine.yahoo.com/parenting/bus-driver-fired-for-facebook-post-files-aclu-lawsuit-190718661.html

People everywhere, including rural Georgia, are getting real tired of this crap real fast.

[Merlot]

1. They're trying to get off on a technicality: "student was never really denied his lunch"

"The school later released surveillance video that showed the student entering the cafeteria but not attempting to go through the lunch line. "

The student probably didn't attempt to get lunch because he knew there was no money in his account.

[Incitatus]

3. Very possible

They have him on tape 1 day not trying to get his lunch because he was previously denied lunch for no funds. There was no point in him trying the other days.

[WillyT]

2. K & R !!!

[840high]

4. I'll make sure our

Governor gets a copy of this.

[ReRe]

5. Hope he wins...

... they don't know what the First Amendment is down there, evidently. Besides, what a good looking teddy bear! He can drive my school bus any ole time!

[Cha]

6. Good Luck, Johnny Cook, in getting your job back! And,

thank you for sticking up for hungry kids!

mahalo rug

[myrna minx]

7. K&R n/t

[noiretextatique]

8. good guy

I hope he wins.

[loudsue]

9. When rural Georgia is tired of it....that is confederate flag territory. They keep voting in the

folks who are taking away the lunch money.

[In_The_Wind]

10. IMO: Children in this country shouldn't be allowed to go hungry!

[Gidney N Cloyd]

11. I'd love to see that school district's 'social networking policy'

[Orrex]

12. I'm sympathetic, but if I posted workplace gossip on FB, I'd be fired.