A school bus driver outside of Buffalo was fired for telling school children that not a single cure has been developed through embryonic stem-cell research in twenty-three years. She didn't molest a child. She didn't drive drunk. She didn't even slip up and wish a student Merry Christmas (verboten) instead of Happy Holidays (gelobt). She merely said something that is true.

I don't deny that it's true, but c'mon...Doesn't anyone wonder how this came up in the normal course of conversation betweeen a schoolbus driver and a bunch of children?

I mean, is she like Otto from the Simpsons, and just gets on the PA system to alert the kids to whatever the hell she feels like discussing on a given day?

I have a feeling there's more to this story.

Political correctness is killing this country. And if you’re on the other side of the liberal, mandated public education side of an argument, you are not only wrong but you are subject to ridicule and banishment.

The discussions can only go one way and that skews left.

Some other funny things happen in public schools where they are top heavy with ‘administrators’ and assistants, the teachers don’t want to teach and they want a lot of money to not do it.

During the election, teachers went out of their way to take polls of children and whom they would vote for if they could vote. Needless to say, the kids’ sentiments more than likely reflected their parents’ thoughts on the subject. But, in my kid’s school, if a ten year old child raised his or her hand to cast a vote for Bush, they were questioned and lightly ridiculed by the teacher.

Bush won anyway.

Unfortunately, depending on financial considerations, we are forced to put our children in state schools and then they and us are held hostage by the liberal thought police.

Wrong on many levels.

I bet what got parents fired up was the reference to Mel Gibson. He is enemy numero uno, or dos if you put el presidente first. (Why am I writing in Spanish?)

I have no idea why you decided to write in Spanish. Maybe because you wanted to be unfunny...if so....you succeeded.

Nice work.

It is hard to believe, as "Homer" pointed out, that elementary school students would be discussing stem-cell research. But I remember conversations with our bus driver in high school on anything and everything (usually based off what the news was on the radio that day). So it isn't exactly crazy that the topic would come up...

Had the driver spoken of Superman's brave and valiant quest to conquer the religious fanatics in the name of science, I doubt he would have been fired. He may have been promoted.

Nevertheless, an elementary school bus driver should not try to enlist children in support of a political position. Their teachers, yes; school bus drivers, no.

Incidentally, whether or not stem-cell treatment cures disease is irrelevant. The stem-cell debate IS the abortion debate, and the only relevant fact is the murder of babies.

It is quite understandable how a bus driver would say this, and yet not be guity of either announcing it on a PA system like Otto, or trying to enlist the children into a political position.

Is he or is he not allowed to talk to the children at all? If he talks, they will sometimes talk about what they discussed in school. Imagine that it comes out in such a conversation that that a teacher said in class x, y, and z about stem cell funding and how republicans or religious people were stupid or evil for opposing it. So far, so believable.

The bus driver either is allowed or not allowed to inform the child/ren in front of him that they were told only half the story. This is about his free speech rights. Simple.

Agreed, firing is a pretty harsh, and perhaps illegal, reaction in this instance. She should certainly be allowed to speak her mind, even if she is citing data from the noted stem-cell researcher Mel Gibson.

On the one had, I think that if I were running this school, I would want try to stop such conversation. Nevermind the fact that I agree with and believe Dr. Gibson, I would still tell the bus-driver, "Look, I'm paying you to drive the bus, not engage elementary-school kids in a political debate." And if she persisted, she would be then diciplined.

On the other hand, I really hate the general unfriendliness in our country today. I don't WANT to have to tell the bus driver "Shut up, and drive the bus". I mean, the bus driver should be allowed to ask the kids, "So, what did you guys learn in school today?" and chat with them. In effect, to just be - NICE and FRIENDLY. If that means giving an opinion that someone disagrees with, I don't see what the big deal is.

I reject this whole trend towards everyone "knowing their place" and having to filter what conversation is "appropriate" to their station in life. It leads to treating people like they're just machines, or in this case extensions of their machines, and not people with thoughts, opinions, feelings, etc. "Just shut up and drive the bus. If we could get it to drive itself, we would." I think that's the bigger problem. If we accepted people as "whole persons" with value, whether we agree with them or not, we wouldn't even be having this discussion.

So I guess I basically agree with shorty. Sorry about the stepsister comment, BTW. I'm sure your lineage is legit.

Interesting comments Doug. Did you by chance ride the "short bus" to school?

Well done.

Brad,

The efficacy of embryonic stem cells actually is relevant b/c there seems to be plenty of proof that adult stem cells or stem cells taken from umbilical cords are much more effective at curing diseases, leukemia for example. Neither of these sources of cells involves destruction of life at all. The fact that the media refuses to treat this issue honestly, as in, not pointing out that it is a bogus issue since embryonic stem cells have zero utility while a plentiful and non-controversial source does, is the only thing that keeps this issue around.

If that truth would come out then this wouldn't even be a abortion battle we would have to fight at all. But, as you point out this is all propagated by the dark pro-abort minions who recognize that promoting the destruction of embryos on utilitarian grounds (even if those grounds are false and non-existent) will keep the public thinking of babies instrumentally as their for our convenience to keep or destroy.

The South Park episode on this was perfect, with Chris Reeves snapping embryos in two and sucking out their blood in order to move around again.

It is odd that the bus driver was having this conversation but public schools shouldn't even exist.

Brian:

I disagree. If the argument against embryonic stem-cell research depends on a comparison between the failure of such research and the success of adult stem-cell research, the implication is that success with emryonic stem-cells would (in principle) justify the destruction of embryos.

I remember a cheesy Strother Martin horror movie from the 1960s. He was the head of a witches coven that was going to use the bodies of children so that they could live forever. I see that in the 60s this was "horror." So tell me, how on God's Earth is embryonic stem-cell research NOT such a horror? Why, because some of us might benefit from it.

I swear this oath to all of you, as I have to Warrior, my friends and family:

"I will NOT have any treatment for my illness that is derived from stem-cell research, even if it means saving my life."

I have had a life, 38 years of it. It wouldn't be fair for that embryo to NOT get those years just because I might get a few more out of the deal. The whole thing smacks of sacrificing babies to me. No thanks, I would rather die.

Be well,

Sponge

What kind of weirdo kids talk about stem cell research on a bus trip to school?