That school bus driver who exploded at students in a viral, profanity-laced rant? She's speaking out — and taking nothing back: 'This was my breaking point'

Readers of TheBlaze likely will recall Friday's story about the Ohio school bus driver who went viral with her profanity-laced rant against students. Well, now she's speaking out.

In fact, Jackie Miller went on camera for an interview and said she isn't taking back anything she said. "This was my breaking point," she told WEWS-TV.

What's the background?

At the time of the initial report, Miller's identity wasn't revealed. The only thing we knew was that cellphone video caught her blistering rant, she resigned soon after — and she gained a lot of online support.

The uncensored video was posted to TikTok showing her stopping the bus and walking down the aisle to give students a serious tongue-lashing: "I'm sick of all of this s**t! I'm done with it! I'm gonna start kicking some f***in' serious ass! Do you hear me? My foot's gonna be so far up your goddamn ass, it's gonna dangle out your goddamn nose! I'm done with you!"

Oh, but there was more: "I'm ready to walk off this goddamn bus right now and let you people walk the f*** home! How much more do you think anybody can freaking take?"

She added, "I don't wanna hear another goddamn word out of your mouth!" and hollered as she began driving the bus again, "Somebody needs to come up on this bus and seriously kick some f***in' ass!"

Here's the censored video:

VIDEO | Amherst bus driver resigns as officials investigate allegations of 'unacceptable' behavioryoutu.be

WJW-TV reported that the driver resigned from the Amherst Exempted Village School District soon after the incident.

But commenters on the uncensored TikTok video — which has since been deleted — seemed decidedly behind the driver. To wit:

• "I agree with the bus driver tbh," one commenter said.
• "If I was her boss, she'd get a raise," another user declared.
• "As a middle school teacher, I want to invite her to be my co-teacher!" another user pledged.
• "She could drive my kids to school any day!" another commenter said.

You can view the uncensored video here.

Miller speaks out

While the video of her rant is pretty pointed to say the least, Miller told WEWS that "it is out of character for me. I’m not normally like that. I’m normally as calm as a cucumber. It just got to the point where I snapped."

The station said she'd been bus driver for 15 years and spent the last two years with Amherst schools — and loved her job because of the students.

“They were so much fun. I got to spend just a few minutes every day with them, but I was lucky because I had great kids,” Miller added to WEWS.

However, she told the station the viral video represented the culmination of years of frustration due to a small group of junior high students who she said consistently bullied other students and also were disruptive and distracting.

What's more, Miller told WEWS she asked the district administration for help but didn't get any: "My requests for help were ignored."

“I truly regret the whole incident because it should not have happened. I should’ve been a little more calm and been able to talk to him [one of the students on the bus] better than what I did," she told the station. "I do apologize for that, but I don’t take it back; this was my breaking point."

Tremendous support

Miller also told WEWS she didn't expect how much support she's been receiving — in fact, the station said the hashtag #teambusdriver is trending.

Jacqui Adkins — owner of apparel company Mistakes on the Lake — told WEWS that she sided with Miller when she saw the video. Then when Adkins shared it on social media, most commenters sided with Miller as well, the station said.

“People have bad days. I have had bad days, and I think that’s what everyone felt in that moment when they saw that, is that they felt for her,” Adkins told WEWS.

With that, Adkins actually turned Miller's rant into a T-shirt, with $5 of every sale going to Miller, the station noted:

“People said they wanted it, and they got it,” Adkins recounted to WEWS. “The power of social media.”

Jeff Grob told the station he sided with Miller to the extent that he started a GoFundMe page to support her: “I just thought, ‘Man, we got to help her because I’m sure there’s more to this story.'" As of Thursday afternoon, more than $55,000 and counting has been raised to help with her retirement.

Grob added to WEWS that he believes "it’s something that people relate to, like we all wanted to say that, we’ve all wanted to do it, but we have to be politically correct. There needs to be more ability for these drivers to discipline these kids so that it doesn’t escalate to this in the future.”

Miller has a message, too, for the powers that be, telling the station that "parents, teachers, administration — they must step up and support bus drivers. Parents must stand up and support bus drivers. If you don’t have the buses, you don’t have the schools.”

Bus driver in viral video talks about nationwide support she's receivedyoutu.be

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