Entitled Parent Reports Autistic Son's Bus Driver For Not Keeping The Bus Quiet Enough For Their Son's Comfort

Keeping a large group of teens quiet might just be the most difficult task in the world.

Jesse

• Published in Interesting
• July 31, 2023

It is estimated that worldwide about 1 in 100 children have autism, which means there are millions of parents worldwide with autistic children.

In reality, parenting is difficult, but it can be a lot more challenging to care for a child with special needs. This is because although society is more developed now, there aren’t as many resources that cater to autistic children as there are for children without.

This can cause distress for the child and even the parent who has to worry about their child’s welfare.

In some cases, the parent may expect others to adapt to situations only favorable for their child to keep the child happy and stress-free. Unfortunately, this doesn’t always work out.

We found one story on the AITA subreddit that paints a similar picture.

OP shared that their 14-year-old son is severely autistic and rides the school bus with other children. In order to prevent their son from having meltdowns, they tasked the bus driver to keep the other teenagers from making loud noises during the ride.

On a regular day after school, OP noticed that her son had become agitated and refused to get off the bus at his stop. Thankfully, they calmed him down, but not without scolding the driver for not keeping the bus quiet, as she had requested.

From that day, the bus driver took little interest in interacting with them or their son each time he arrived in their neighborhood. This "cold" behavior from the bus driver triggered OP to make a report to the school authorities.

OP also went further to inform their neighbor, whose two children ride the same bus, about the situation. And to their surprise, they accused OP of being unreasonable.

Now OP has decided to bring the matter before the Reddit community for deliberation. Let's see if they can get anyone on their side.

The story in detail

A little background

OP slammed the bus driver for not keeping the bus quiet enough for her autistic son's comfort. Ever since his attitude has changed towards them

OP reported the driver to the school, but the school authorities couldn't find anything against him

Even OP's neighbor thinks that they're being unreasonable

Here's how the Reddit community reacted to the story:

"If he can't be on a bus without having a meltdown, stop making him take the bus"

"This bus driver is not specialized in dealing with autistic children."

"So you wanted everyone on the bus to change how they act for one person?"

"Complaining cuz your kid isn't getting special treatment by a bus driver is a total Karen move"

"Keeping a large group of teenagers quiet is an impossible task, especially if your job is to focus on driving."

"YTA, the man drives a bus full of middle schoolers"

"YTA. It's a school bus. It's going to be loud."

The commenters wasted no time ascribing OP the AH title. According to them, OP was selfish to expect the other children to remain quiet because of her son.

As some Redditors said, keeping a group of teenagers quiet is an almost impossible task—more so when you're driving.

Do you agree with the commenters that OP is the AH in this situation? Let us know in the comments section below!

Jesse