Mom Complained on Bus Driver after Her Autistic Son Refused to Get off the School Bus

After her son with autism refuses to get off the bus, an angry mother slams his school bus driver for not keeping the bus quiet for her boy and amasses severe backlash.

A mom of a 14-year-old came under fire for reporting her son’s school bus driver claiming he was being “rude” to her. To her horror, the internet didn’t receive her reasoning kindly.

The mother known by the username Throw-away9l834847 on Reddit first introduced her story saying she had a severely autistic 14-year-old son.

Since the boy’s school didn’t provide separate busses for children with special needs, he rode the bus daily with fellow kids in the neighborhood, and it was his first time taking the bus alone.

In the past, the Original Poster (OP) had driven her son to and from school, but she couldn’t do it that school year due to scheduling issues. The mom was okay with just dropping her boy off and picking him up from the bus stop.

At the beginning of the academic year, she introduced herself to the school bus driver with an unusual request. OP asked the man to keep the other kids on the bus as quiet as possible since the noise agitated her son, who sometimes had major meltdowns.

The driver told the mother that he would “try his best” but didn’t assure her or make any promises. That afternoon, OP’s son was anxious during the bus ride home. When she reached the stop to pick him up, she realized how “disturbed” he was. The boy refused to get off the bus.

Some even asked the woman if she’d ever been on a school bus before.

OP got on the bus, and only after she calmed him down did the boy agree to get off. The driver, who had more kids to drop off, frowned at the two, and the way he glared irked the woman.

“If you’re going to be mad at anybody, it should be yourself,” OP told him angrily. “I told you to keep the bus quiet.”

Following the incident, she noticed a set pattern in the driver’s attitude whenever she dropped her son off and picked him up. She noticed the guy greeted the other children and their parents cheerfully but always frowned at her and her son.

After much thought, the mother decided to notify the school about it. She called the faculty and told them that the driver was “rude” to her. The school said they’d look into the matter.

A couple of days later, the driver still frowned at her. The frustrated woman called the school to report him again, but to her surprise, they sided with the driver saying nobody had any issues with him and regarded him as one of the best in school.

Doubtful still, the mother mentioned the problem to her neighbor whose kids rode the same bus with her son. But the neighbor told OP she was being unreasonable and reminded her of how “extremely disruptive” her son was on the bus. The woman said the boy shouldn’t be riding the bus anymore and this angered the mom.

Unable to get at a reasonable solution, the mother then turned to Reddit’s popular forum to seek advice if she was the one wrong for reporting the school bus driver. The internet wasn’t kind to her and roasted her online for asking a driver to do something that wasn’t his job.

“You’re asking a bus driver to somehow keep an entire bus full of school children quiet, WHILE DRIVING, just for your child?” wrote Redditor KatiesClawWins, adding:

“I empathize...but it isn’t reasonable to ask everyone to cater to your child’s needs. If he can’t be on a bus without having a meltdown, stop making him take the bus.”

Meanwhile, some users with sensory processing issues advised on the alternatives OP could use instead of complaining about a bus driver trying to do his job right.

“I also have sensory processing issues and the amount of times being on a bus almost set my panic attacks aflame is ridiculous,” user maymayiscraycray said, adding:

“OP, just because your son is autistic doesn’t mean the rest of the world will cater to his needs…You need to find an alternative.”

“I’m 14 with sensory processing issues. Last year on the bus, the noise was so bad I started wearing earbuds every day,” Redditor iindigomist stated.

With over 7K votes, the mom’s post amassed severe backlash from people claiming it wasn’t the driver’s duty to discipline children while trying to get them home on wheels safely.

Some even asked the woman if she’d ever been on a school bus before. They told her that a bus full of school kids would never be even a little quiet.

However, it’s still guesswork if OP took the advice seriously and made an alternate arrangement to ride her son to and from school peacefully and if she’d stopped reporting the driver again.

Questions to Ponder:

Do you think it was the bus driver’s responsibility to discipline the noisy children on the bus?

OP claimed the driver said he would try his best when she asked him to quiet the other kids whenever her son was on the bus. However, the people on the internet said she put her son in a situation where he would get more agitated, and it was her duty to deal with him instead. Some even lashed out at her for blaming the driver despite knowing that her son wouldn’t function normally in such a noisy situation. If in the driver’s position, how would you react if a mother of a child with special needs asks you to do something similar?

Was the driver genuinely being rude to the mother?

OP said she constantly tried to get the driver disciplined for frowning at her. She even said that the guy cheerfully talked to the other parents and children but her. As it turned out, even the faculty dismissed her report saying the driver was one of the best in school and the people online said she was in the wrong for trying to ruin his livelihood just because he refused to cater to her needs. Though the internet and the faculty made it evident to the mother that the driver wasn’t at fault, it’s also curious why the driver singled the mother out by frowning at her or if it was only the mother's biased imagination that the driver was being rude to her.

If you liked this story, here’s what happens to the driver when a girl’s angry mother gets on the bus to confront him for telling off her daughter.

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