school coach driver from Leicester banned from school run after racial argument

A bus driver from Leicester has been banned from the school run after racially abusing a parent who was collecting her child from school. The police have also issued the driver with a caution after the incident which occurred at Stonehill High School in Birstall.

Parent, Louise Maynard, angered the driver after parking in front of his bus on a road inside the school grounds. The Nigel Jackson Travel driver is then understood to have lost his cool when Ms Maynard took a long time moving her car from out of his way.

It was at this point that the driver got out of his bus and confronted the 35-year-old parent, leaning on her car bonnet and arguing with her. During the confrontation the bus driver is reported to have said, “I don’t have to listen to you, you black b***h.”

Ms Maynard, who is Afro-Caribbean, said she was most upset as the incident happened in front of her daughter. She also admitted that she shouldn’t have parked in front of the bus but that when “I put my hands up to say I was moving he got out and started shouting at me.”

During the argument Ms Maynard admitted to calling the 67-year-old driver “fat and Mr Blobby” to which Ms Maynard claims he replied, “At least I can do something about my weight but what can you do about the colour of your skin?”

The bus driver has been banned by Leicester Council from driving buses on the school run until July 2011. However Ms Maynard does not believe this is a sufficient enough punishment and is calling for the company to be stripped of its school bus contract. The school’s head teacher said, “This is the first problem we have had with this bus company.”