School Bus Driver Ryan Pleune Fired For Unscheduled Detour To Tim DeChristopher Rally

Ryan Pleune, an on-call bus driver for the Salt Lake City School District in Utah, was fired after making an additional, unscheduled stop during a field trip. Before returning the students to school from a field trip, he stopped his bus at a rally supporting Tim DeChristopher .

Pleune told the Salt Lake Tribune that he wanted to let the students see the protests as a current example of political revolt.

"It started to occur to me that there is this kind of democracy in action going on in our city. It is national news. Why not share that with the kids rather than let them just read it in their text books and think it is in the past?"

Pleune was returning the students from viewing "A Tale of Two Cities" at a local playhouse when he made the detour.

Jason Olsen, spokesman for the school district, told KCPW that administrators could not support his actions because the stop was not pre-approved.

"The actions he took were his own actions. They were not approved by the school or by the district. Both those entities do not condone what he did. The students were on a field trip to go see a play at the Hale Centre Theatre, they were not on a field trip to go see a political rally downtown."

Tim DeChristopher is currently on trial for allegedly "faking the purchase of $1.7 million of federal oil-and-gas drilling leases in an act of civil disobedience," according to the Associated Press. His actions have attracted environmentalist support, with hundreds protesting outside the courthouse where his trial is taking place.

Pleune told ABC 4 that if he didn't stop he believed it would be a detriment to the students' education, regardless of political associations.

"I do feel like it's a disservice not to show them things that are current, that are going on... some people label them as political and then they get really afraid of that."

Other teachers were present when Pleune showed students the protests. According to ABC 4, however, they have not yet been disciplined.

WATCH:

Quick Poll

Do you agree with the decision to fire Ryan Pleune?

Yes. We pay bus drivers to safely transport students, not teach.

No. Pleune was showing students the political process in action.

I'm unsure.

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Comments

[Madbunny]

02:32 AM on 03/11/2011

I'm not actually adverse to the idea of the driver making a detour that shows students something educational. That said, it's not his decision to make.

If he'd called (or the teachers in charge of the trip) and gotten it cleared with the school administration then there would be less problems here. As it is, he basically just absconded with a bus load of school children.

[KDMac]

01:48 PM on 03/09/2011

What right does any teacher/bus driver have to try to politically indocrinate my child? I'd be livid, no doubt.

[bccmeteorites]

05:48 AM on 03/08/2011

In other news. Libyan freedom fighters are being threatened with prosecution for theft because they did not have permission to use weapons taken from government warehouses.

[above]

03:30 PM on 03/07/2011

I would bring him up on abduction charges!

[Eleanor of Aquitaine]

04:05 PM on 03/07/2011

Hold on. We don't know if the teachers said okay to making this extra stop or if he just did it without saying anything first.

If he just did it on his own, then he over-stepped his bounds in a huge way. If he got permission from a teacher on the bus - the teacher was in charge and should take some blame.

[KDMac]

01:42 PM on 03/09/2011

So he's not guilty, just not very bright.

[SeptimusDSX]

10:46 AM on 03/07/2011

The poll needs to be modified to include more options.

I do not agree with firing the driver, but I also believe that it was not his job to act as a political science teacher. If I were in-charge, I would caution the driver against repeating this and let it go. Firing him was very very harsh. You should not deprive somebody of an honest livelihood on a whim.

[MsMarchHare]

12:54 PM on 03/07/2011

please do a news search on this guy and read the other articles, I agree you shouldn't fire someone honest on a whim....but this guy hasn't been honest and he planned the detour which included parking the bus, his joining the demonstrators, using the kids as a photo op, admitting he never asked permission, and it was a Rally he and his wife helped to Organize. Then he told the school he only got off the bus to tend a "Battery Issue".

I wouldn't give this guy a caution for this. It was clearly a deliberate decision on his part that involved using the kids as a prop for a rally he was vested in.

[Eleanor of Aquitaine]

04:05 PM on 03/07/2011

If this information is true, then yes, he should have been fired.

[SeptimusDSX]

05:00 PM on 03/07/2011

Do you have links to any specific articles? I'm too lazy to sift through Google. :)

[A Radical Moderate]

09:49 AM on 03/07/2011

The driver did not have permission from the school board/the parents/the teachers to take the children anywhere but from home to school or from school to home. If a parent really wanted to push the envelop they may be able to make a case for attempted kidnapping.

[DaBluAce]

02:57 AM on 03/07/2011

dude, you're the bus driver...not in your job description concerning enlightenment of students concerning protest!

[sibyl9]

09:34 PM on 03/06/2011

Dude, you are a bus driver, your job is to drive and only drive.

[DaBluAce]

02:57 AM on 03/07/2011

saw your reply after I posted my response...it seems great minds think alike!!

[OhioSheryl]

07:28 PM on 03/06/2011

The bus driver did not have permission from the school board to go anywhere else so the school board has every right to terminate him. As a parent, I would demand his termination.

[MsMarchHare]

04:05 PM on 03/06/2011

“http://www­.sltrib.co­m/sltrib/h­ome/513479­07-76/pleu­ne-bus-stu­dents-dist­rict.html.­csp

http://www­.ksl.com/?­nid=148&si­d=14572324

http://www­.deseretne­ws.com/art­icle/70536­7792/Bus-d­river-make­s-DeChrist­opher-tria­l-into-imp­romptu-fie­ld-trip-st­op.html?pg­=1

PLEASE READ these other news reports...some much earlier then the one above.

Pleune has LIED about every single aspect of his story

Yes he's a teacher....a SCIENCE teacher, he was not qualified and not hired to teach a social studies lesson.

He claims he asked permission en route...he didn't he even acknowledges he didn't, he says he decided to do it and beg forgiveness afterwards.

He didn't DETOUR to pass by the rally he PARKED THERE. He found, somehow, parking for a BUS, open right in the midst of the rally....and how did he do that?

He and his wife Jamie helped ORGANIZE the rally.

When he parked there he told the kids to open there windows and he got off the bus and convienently there were singers and jugglers (remember, these are his friends) who then entertained the students while demonstrators used them as as a photo op.

Now he's claiming he parked and left the bus to deal with a "battery issue"

[MsMarchHare]

04:09 PM on 03/06/2011

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i212/missmarchhare/dtcommonstreamsStreamServercls.jpg

[builderman55]

01:17 PM on 03/06/2011

In this political climate, when we have a regressive political party trying to re-take the reigns of power back so they can further polarize the country in defense of their narrow political agenda, this is a chilling action. Public protest, no matter the focus of the protest is a powerful symbol of the basic human right to express their opinion. And institutional government has always been uncomfortable with it. Unless he was proselytizing while he was showing them the protest, he should be given support for contributing to the kids' education.

[corwin]

10:18 PM on 03/06/2011

Spelling is sometime important "reins" of power,as in something associated with a horse.And,diffidently,no one seems to have asked him to contribute to the kids' education ,or felt he had done so. IN this case,Wu's Dictum takes precedence.'Stupidity Can be a Capital Crime"
Tough to spell with the Ambien taking effect

[Frustrated in PA]

10:58 PM on 03/06/2011

The poster was correct in using "reigns of power." Spaces between periods are rather effective.

Really, if you are going to play self-righteous grammar police then try to get it right.

[MsMarchHare]

06:54 PM on 03/07/2011

lols on the ambien...been there

[AllyCat7]

01:01 PM on 03/06/2011

The pic associated with the story cracks me up. Looks like they are about to leave on quite an adventure lol

[umbrarchist]

12:34 PM on 03/06/2011

They are certainly giving the children a lesson by firing him.

Don't show initiative. Follow all of the rules. Turn off your brain.

Oh yeah, that is education isn't it?.

[Angelus2007]

12:46 PM on 03/06/2011

You can't take kids anywhere you want. The school needs to know where the bus and kids are. Plus that isn't his decision, the parents need to make that decision. Whenever their is a field trip there needs to parent approval from each parent. A parent may object to that, and should have the right to ask his child not go.

Would you or anyone else feel the same way if he want to a anti-gay rally or anti-abortion rally. I bet if that was the case the comments would be filled with people calling the guy a tea bagger and trying to brainwash the kids.

[builderman55]

01:23 PM on 03/06/2011

If we limited what happened in the classroom to what parents wanted their kids to see and hear, we would teach nothing. Education, from my perspective (as a former educator) should, at it's base be a revolutionary activity. It should "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable" as was once said about religion. Political institutions often distrust education because, when done properly, keeps ALL questions on the table for consideration. It's one of the reasons why, when dictators take over a country, they begin their crusade by killing teachers... Witness Texas, where the book selection committee wants education to be indoctrination, not true education.

[umbrarchist]

02:30 PM on 03/06/2011

Yes, he should definitely have gotten some kind of reprimand.

But I attended Catholic schools and there is lots of what somebody would call brainwashing going on everywhere. You can find people who call Star Trek communist. I decided I was an agnostic at 12 so I ignored and would not talk to the nuns unless absolutely necessary.

I think the fact that schools don't make accounting mandatory to be TOTALLY INCOMPETENT. The country CLAIMS to be capitalist but does not insist that EVERYONE understand accounting? How absurd! No, we gotta brainwash those kids into being dummies.

Double-entry accounting is SEVEN HUNDRED YEARS OLD..

[builderman55]

01:24 PM on 03/06/2011

Exactly... Well said.

[Lola Jordan]

11:31 AM on 03/06/2011

I'm sure he knew this would, at least get him in hot water, and at most get him canned, but he did it anyway. He was probably sick of the gig and wanted to go out in a big way. It reminds me of the scene in Cookoo's nest when Randall took everyone fishing.

[j lasoul]

11:29 AM on 03/06/2011

there is a reason why there are always permission slips when kids leave the school for field trips. parents have the right to know where their kids are going to be over the course of the day (if they aren't going to be in school). regardless of the political dimension, this is just a stupid thing to do. what if the bus had crashed on the detour? what if there was an act of violence at the rally? i'm not saying that kids shouldn't be exposed to the political process or go out into the world, but a unilateral decision taken by a bus driver, teacher, principal, or anyone else could potentially cause friction with parental rights and therefore, there are consequences to said actions.

[PCPrincess]

01:08 PM on 03/06/2011

It doesn't matter that the children's teachers on board the bus, who are all grown responsible adults went along with it. Children are not breakable vases. I would have been happy to hear my son was allowed to see the protest.

[builderman55]

01:27 PM on 03/06/2011

Oh please...If that were our criteria, we would house students in bomb shelters and transport them in armored cars. It's not like he drove them 100 miles away on the in a blinding snowstorm to show them the protest...