I was suspended one month before retirement, just because some parent spotted me at a motorcycle rally. Forty-two years I’d driven that yellow bus. Never had an accident.
Never been late. Knew every child’s name, which ones needed a little extra encouragement in the morning, which ones needed a quiet word when their parents were fighting. For four decades, I was the first smile those kids saw after leaving home and the last goodbye before they returned.
None of that mattered after Mrs. Westfield saw me with my club at the Thunder Road Rally. Took pictures of me in my leather vest, standing beside my Triumph.
Next day, she was in Principal Hargrove’s office with a petition signed by eighteen parents demanding the “dangerous biker element” be removed from their children’s bus. “Administrative leave pending investigation,” they called it. But we both knew what it was—a death sentence for my career, a shameful exit instead of the retirement ceremony I’d been promised.
All because I committed the terrible sin of riding a motorcycle on my own time. I sat in Principal Hargrove’s office that Monday morning, my weathered hands gripping the arms of the chair as he slid the paperwork across his desk. Couldn’t even look me in the eye—this man I’d known for twenty years, whose own children I’d driven safely to school through blizzards and downpours.
“Ray,” he finally said, voice barely above a whisper, “several parents have expressed concern about your… association with a motorcycle gang.”
“Club,” I corrected, feeling heat rise up my neck. “It’s a motorcycle club, John. The same one I’ve belonged to for thirty years.
The same one that raised $40,000 for the children’s hospital last summer. The same one that escorted Katie Wilson’s funeral procession when she died of leukemia—a girl I drove to school every day until she got too sick to attend.”
He had the decency to flinch at that, but pressed on. “Mrs.
Westfield showed the board photos from some rally. You were wearing… insignia. Patches that looked… intimidating.”
I almost laughed.
My vest with the American flag patch. The POW/MIA emblem I wore to honor my brother who never came home from Vietnam. The patch that said “Rolling Thunder” because we supported veterans.
“So that’s it? One month before I retire, you’re suspending me because some parents suddenly discovered I ride a motorcycle?”
“Ray, please understand our position. The safety of the children—”
“Don’t.” I held up my hand.
“Don’t you dare talk to me about the safety of those kids. I carried Jessica Meyer from her driveway to the bus for three years after her accident. I performed CPR on Tyler Brooks when he had an asthma attack.
I’ve gotten every single child home safe through forty-two years of driving, even when the roads were sheets of ice and I couldn’t feel my fingers on the wheel.”
My voice broke then, something that hadn’t happened since Margaret passed five years back. “And now I’m dangerous? Now I’m a threat?” I stood up, my old knees protesting.
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