‘Should Have Never Been Dismissed’: Virginia School Bus Driver Fired for Posting Handshake Video with Students Gets Job Back After District Faces Backlash
A Virginia school district has reinstated one of its bus drivers who was forced to resign after she posted a video on social media showing the different, personalized handshakes she exchanges with each of the students she drives to school.
The video, in essence, sounds perfectly harmless and fun — a school bus driver showing how she cultivates rapport and forms relationships with each child she’s charged with transporting safely to school each day.
But for the Chesapeake Public Schools District, the clip violated a “zero tolerance” policy that prohibited teachers and staff members from posting children to their personal social media accounts.
And Jessica Flowers directly violated that policy when she recorded the students without their parents’ permission, according to a statement from the school district.
“All CPS employees are expected to follow Board policies and regulations regarding student privacy, professional conduct, social media, and appropriate communication with students. Those policies include strict limits on photographing or filming students for personal social media. These policies also restrict one-to-one communication with students via personal devices,” district officials, per WTKR.
The statement continues: “In this case, the employee did not obtain parental permission before filming and posting a video of students to her personal social media account, relying instead on verbal consent from the students. She was assigned training on the appropriate use of social media and professional communication with students; however, she chose not to complete the required training.”
When school administrators met with Flowers about the policy violation, Flowers immediately took out her phone and deleted the video, which didn’t blur or cover the children’s faces.
“I took it down,” Flowers told WTKR. “I said, ‘Please give me a second chance.’ That’s how what I said, I’m a single parent, which they probably don’t even matter. I work, I love my job, I love what I do right? Give me a second chance.”
For the district, the damage had already been done. School administrators didn’t issue her a warning. Instead, they gave her the option to resign or face termination. Flowers submitted her resignation.
The original video has since been removed, but an edited version of the clip in which the children’s faces are covered with emoji hearts is currently circulating online.
One parent whose child was driven by Flowers defended the driver, saying that she noticed Flowers went above and beyond to get to know the students.
“In this day and age you see these kinds of videos go viral and you see the love and the dedication,” Tara Mark told WAVY. “Policy is very important, but so is common sense and compassion.”
After news of Flowers’ resignation gained local media attention, Virginia Beach attorney Tim Anderson reached out to her to represent her pro bono.
According to WAVY, Anderson set up a GiveSendGo fundraiser to raise donations for living expenses for Flowers and her 11-year-old child. The account raised $10,000 in just 14 hours.
He also threatened to file a federal lawsuit against Chesapeake Public Schools on Flowers’ behalf if she was not given back her job.
A few weeks after her firing, Flowers was reinstated.
“After weeks of uncertainty, Chesapeake Public Schools has agreed to reinstate Jessica Flowers to her position as a school bus driver,” Anderson wrote on his Facebook page. “Jessica is absolutely thrilled to return to doing what she loves — greeting her students each morning with the same warmth and kindness that made her so beloved.”
Hundreds of people on social media were relieved to see Flowers return to the school district.
“Bravo! She deserves back pay! This was a total miscarriage of policy!” one Facebook user commented.
“She should have never been dismissed from her job,” another person wrote.
“Such wonderful news! I sure hope she gets her original route back,” someone else added.
Anderson said it’s unclear whether Flowers will be placed back on her original route, but they’ll be monitoring the district’s actions in the coming weeks to watch out for any retaliation.