AMHERST, Ohio — The Amherst School District bus driver who is shown on a viral video yelling obscenities at students said she apologizes for her actions but doesn’t regret them.
Jackie Miller, the bus driver, is now a viral sensation with people raising money for her retirement fund and turning part of her rant into t-shirts.
The incident occurred Wednesday afternoon and Miller resigned since it went viral. The Amherst School District said it is investigating the situation.
The video, posted to TikTok and Facebook, has been viewed nearly 3 million times. It paints an angry and aggressive bus driver berating students, but Miller said that is not who she is.
“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,” said Miller.
She’s been a bus driver for 15 years and has spent the last two years as a driver for Amherst schools. She said she loved her job because of the kids.
RELATED: VIDEO: Amherst schools investigate former bus driver after viral rant
“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,” she said.
But Miller claims what people saw on the video was the culmination of years worth of frustration stemming from a small group of junior high students who she said consistently bullied other students and were also disruptive and distracting.
She said she asked school administrators to help her with the situation but never received that help.
“My requests for help were ignored,” said Miller. “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 [the student] better than what I did. I do apologize for that but I don’t take it back, this was my breaking point," she said.
The video went viral. Some parents were appalled by Miller’s action calling it unprofessional and inappropriate.
“When you threatened physical violence against children, you lose all of what you were going to say,” said one Amherst parent who didn’t want to be named.
Miller resigned on Wednesday because she suspected that the school district was going to fire her.
“I was crushed. I so loved what I did. I loved it,” she said.
But she never expected the amount of support she has received since the video has gone viral. The hashtag, #teambusdriver, is trending.
Jacqui Adkins is the owner of the apparel company Mistakes on the Lake.
She said she immediately sided with Miller when she saw the video and when she shared it to her page, most of the people commenting did, too.
“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,” said Adkins.
Adkins decided to seize the viral moment and turn part of her rant into a t-shirt, with $5 of every sale going right back to Miller.
“People said they wanted it and they got it,” said Adkins. “The power of social media.”
Jeff Grob also sided with Miller. 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,’” he said.
The GoFundMe has raised more than $15,000 in less than a day.
“I think 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,” said Grob. “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 said she is overwhelmed with gratitude from the support and hopes that her breaking point can be a turning point for school districts to better support bus drivers.
“Parents, teachers, administration, they must step up and support bus drivers,” she said. “Parents must stand up and support bus drivers. If you don’t have the buses you don’t have the schools.”
News 5 followed up with Miller. Watch the update in the player below:
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