Detroit bus driver sparks backlash for giving free rides to random students during cold weather: I felt bad
An independent Detroit bus driver allegedly live-streamed himself finding kids and driving them to school because he felt bad for them walking in the cold — splitting the community over his ride-share deed.Darrell Beaver advertised his transportation services on his Facebook page Wednesday morning, asking parents to have their children look out for his bus if they were walking to school on Detroit’s Eastside.“Hey ill be on the Eastside this morning finding kids that walk to school and giving them a free ride let your kids know if a yellow bus with Ellamin’Op Transportation on it its safe to get on PLEASE SHARE AND DROP SOME LOCATION,” Beaver wrote.Detroit Public Schools Community District officials sent out a warning when concerned parents reported the transportation company owner’s message.“An unauthorized bus was reported.Students should only ride official DPSCD buses on assigned routes,” a mass text alert read, according to ABC 7 Detroit.Beaver is only contracted to a planned route with the Braniacs Clubhouse Child Development Center in Detroit and has no affiliation with the public school district, but allegedly dropped off one child at Fisher Magnet Upper Academy with a parent’s permission.The driver says he was only thinking about the well-being of the students who were outside in the deep freeze, where morning wind chills reached between 10 and 15 degrees below zero.“I just jumped into help mode.
Like, it was freezing.Again, I was in a bus for over an hour, and my feet were froze, so I felt bad to see these kids walking,” Beaver told the outlet.An investigation into the “unauthorized bus” revealed Beaver had no ill-intention but school officials were concerned about the liability of the driver and bad actors that would take advantage of any laxed guidelines.“Removing this gentleman from the equation, we don’t have any information or evidence to suggest he had any nefarious intention,” school safety Police Chief Labrit Jackso...