Cynthia Morgan, a school bus driver for Harford County Public Schools in Maryland for more than a decade, was alerted by an alarmed 10-year-old boy on board that there was an injured kitten by the side of the road. Yielding to the young student’s entreaties, Morgan stopped the bus on lightly-trafficked Heaps School Road in Pylesville and allowed the student to retrieve the kitten. The boy held the kitty in his lap until he was dropped off at school, whereupon the bus driver volunteered her lap for kitten-sitting for the rest of the route.
The incident got her fired. Morgan confirmed her dismissal to CBS News Baltimore and said she was devastated by the decision. The mother of the kitten rescuer says that her son would have been “devastated” if the cat has been left to fend for itself. “The fact that she was let go because of an act of kindness does really weigh on him,” she added. “That is unforgivable and cruel.”
Is it? Your Ethics Alarms Ethics Quiz of the Day is…
Was it ethical—responsible, fair, competent and reasonable—to fire the bus driver for permitting the emergency woulded kitten intervention?
The community, not to mention the influential feline population, is rallying behind Morgan. A petition on Change.org calls for the bus driver to be reinstated. “Over the years, Cynthia has become more than just a bus driver to our children; she is someone they look forward to seeing every morning and afternoon,” one parent wrote. “Her kind and warm nature makes the pupils feel safe and comfortable.This is not just my personal sentiment – countless parents and students share the same view.”
Another told reporters, “Every year at the beginning of the school year she buys every child on the bus school supplies. She buys them gifts for Christmas, every holiday, birthdays; she gives them birthday cards, all out of her own pocket.”
In a meeting with district officials, Morgan defended her actions and insisted that she had not put the student or those remaining in her bus in any jeopardy. For its part, the school system is staying the course. “Certification and decertification are not always based on a single factor but often involve consideration of multiple circumstances and requirements,” the school district said in a statement. “Student safety remains our top priority, and all certification decisions are made with that responsibility in mind.”
That sounds like lawyer-dictated CYA to me. Of course the district would default to an “it was the final straw” stance. Still, maybe it was. A letter from district Transportation Director Danielle Bedsaul cited “multiple incidents” involving Morgan, some including “concerns regarding inappropriate interactions with students.” Was buying students gifts and supplies among those “inappropriate actions”?
She let a student off the bus, on a road, in a place that wasn’t designated as a bus stop of any kind, to pick up a frightened/injured kitty that for all she knew could have had rabies and was going to attack the student, and she was fired; I say they were correct to fire her.
The image of the kid picking up the rabid kitty and it leaping at the boy’s throat has had me giggling for the last five minutes…Monty Python-esque!
Ten points for hitting on the head exactly what I was thinking when I wrote that.
I was in the right frame of mind after talking about Rock Opera’s.
Indeed. The Killer Kitty of Caerbannog is legendary in its viciousness. It has laid waste to many a bus driver and carrying child.
jvb
From the video in the linked article, it looks like the kitten was a newborn or close to it, and didn’t have teeth and claws strong enough to break the skin.
I think that while the bus driver could have handled the situation better (pulling over and calling animal control, for instance), that she deserved another shot. She sounds like the type of driver who really cares about the kids-she’s clearly made them a huge part of her life. That kind of dedication could save a life, spot problems at home, find a runaway kid, spot a kidnapper among parents who don’t belong, etc. I had only bad experiences on the bus growing up, and would have loved someone like this woman. And I was a good kid from a nice family-she is probably a hero to kids who don’t have that in their lives, and to parents who know she can be entrusted with their children. I think she did the ethical thing, even if it wasn’t necessarily the BEST thing.
There’s the likely minority answer I was looking for!
(Incidentally, in NVA, animal rescue will not lift a finger for kittens or cats…when I called about an injured cat, the response was “You’re on your own!”)
That’s tragic! I’ve only dealt with injured wildlife and have taken them to our local vet for treatment (given free!) and to our local wildlife sanctuary. Maybe if there’s ever another domestic animal issue you could try taking it to the vet where you take Spuds.
I tend to agree with you, though Steve makes a good point above.
I weigh in on the potential risk to the children on the bus. If the road were lightly traveled, and the bus driver took precautions to ensure safety of the bus riders, then I would wave a finger at her, give her a hug, and adopt the kitty – but I need more information.
I am hesitant because she allowed a young boy to exit the bus at an unauthorized stop, potentially endangering the child. That nothing happened to the child is sort of moral luck.
You’re absolutely right, JVB. It WAS moral luck that nothing happened to the little boy. I’m so glad he’s ok.
I would understand if they had the driver take additional safety classes to drill home why she endangered his life/the lives of the other kids. Or even suspended her, pending further training. But outright firing her seems to be a bad decision. As I mentioned earlier, between her years of service and very obvious devotion and investment in these children, she is still overall more of an asset than a liability. Whomever inherits her route(s) may be a good, by-the-book driver, but they likely won’t have a fraction of the attributes that make her special and worthy to the parents and students who are currently fighting for her to be reinstated.
I really hope something can be worked out. One can’t install common sense into another person, but when one cares as much as this woman so clearly does, she would work hard to regain the trust of her employers and become more cautious as a result. That’s a win-win for everyone involved. Very few people these days seem to give their jobs the attention, dedication and integrity they deserve, so I believe it would be a mistake to let her go entirely.
When stories like this break, I always wonder if there’s ever someone among the decision-makers who says, “If this gets out, the public is not going to be on our side. Is it really worth looking like ogres by firing somebody for this reason?”
I can understand if policy dictates that children can’t leave the bus for any reason besides a hazard on the bus itself, and bus drivers can’t leave the bus while any children are on board, but in this case, since the kid was the only one on the bus at the time, if I was the bus drive I would’ve either had us both get off, or radio dispatch and ask what I can do.
Being a former school bus driver, I’d like to know how this even came to the attention of the people who fired the bus driver? Maybe one of the kids on the bus told their parents or a teacher or administrator? But why did this little event even come to anyone’s attention and why did they feel the need to act upon it? You’re willing to trust this driver with a bunch of little kids and an expensive school bus going all around the county, but you’re not willing to give her the latitude to make such a decision and respond to the situation presented like a reasonable adult. What are these people teaching the children under their care? Pathetic.
When I was in school, my bus driver had a dozen boys get off and push the bus out of a ditch during a snowstorm. Perhaps because I am old, I don’t see what the fuss is about. How did the kid see such a small kitten from a moving bus? My suspicion is that he saw it at a stop. That means that she probably stopped the bus a short distance from the bus stop to let the kid go back and get the kitten. If the bus had its emergency lights on, I really don’t see what the issue is. This seems like a ‘I can get attention by throwing a fit about this and virtue signalling how much I care’ or one of the kids on the bus has a parent who is an HOA President and looks for any way possible to punish people.
“Jeepers Creepers 2” is an excellent horror movie about a high school basketball team bus that gets stopped on a remote stretch of highway by a bat-winged monster that wants to eat everyone on board. Just thought I’d mention it. (I prefer the sequel to the original, but they are both good.)
A high school football team suffered a terrible tradegy, resulting in numerous deaths in “Beetlejuice.” Simply tragic. Juno was beside herself with grief.
jvb
Firing was not the only option available unless they can show definitive proof that this was part of a long line of infractions.
I commend both the child and the driver for taking swift action to protect the kitten. Far too many adults abandon kittens by the side of the road. I know because I take care of them in a TNR colony. By the way, it is Harford not Hartford county.
Great. I thought that was a typo on the part of the source. FIXED.