Haralson County, GA – A school bus driver fired for a Facebook post he refused to take back has become a social hero by our standards.
Johnny Cook lost his job after he posted a rant to Facebook about a middle-school student who was short 40 cents on his pre-paid lunch card, and subsequently went hungry that day.
“This child is already on reduced lunch and we can’t let him eat. Are you kidding me?” Cook posted, also putting up his phone number and offering to cover the costs for the next kid who is a bit short on his lunch card. Roughly 200 people liked the post, at first, but it caught the attention of the superintendent after going viral with 155,000 shares.
The next day he was given an option: Recant and apologize, or be fired. Cook chose the latter.
School officials cited surveillance footage which hey say proves the student never even went through the lunch line. Still, Cook said that he believed the student who approached him.
“I felt like in my heart of hearts the kid was telling the truth. Whether he was or whether he wasn’t, I believed him. So I was not going to recant the story,” Cook said.
CBS Atlanta spoke to the child’s family, and they confirmed Cook’s version of the story.
For his part, Cook says that he doesn’t regret the Facebook post.
“I’m proud of the reaction and I’m proud I was able to make a stand when some people may not be able to. And maybe I was able to make a change, in some way, cause a little change,” Cook said.
There is currently an online petition going to get Cook his job back, which you can see here. In his abundant free time, Cook has elected to start a Facebook initiative called Johnny’s Kids, dedicated to the issue. You can check that out here.
What do you think? Does Johnny Cook, the school bus driver fired for a Facebook post, deserve to get his job back? Sound off! If you ask me, there are much worse things you could lose your job over.
