{"id":67866,"date":"2025-12-22T20:58:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T20:58:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/67866\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T20:58:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T20:58:15","slug":"pennsylvania-school-bus-driver-fired-for-posting-shocking-sign-banning-spanish-speaks-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/67866\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania school bus driver fired for\u00a0posting shocking sign\u00a0banning Spanish speaks out"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Pennsylvania school bus driver who was fired for\u00a0putting up a sign<\/a>\u00a0banning students from speaking Spanish said she was not being racist \u2014 but trying to stop kids from being bullied without her understanding.<\/p>\n

Diane Crawford, 66, lost her job of three decades after sparking outrage with the handwritten sign reading: \u201cOut of respect to English only students there will be NO speaking Spanish on this bus.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t mean to be racially insensitive or anything like that,\u201d Crawford\u00a0told Local 21 News<\/a>\u00a0last week while wiping away tears.<\/p>\n

Diane Crawford, 66, was fired for posting a \u201cracially insensitive\u201d sign on her bus window. WHP<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe I should have worded it (differently). Maybe it should have said, \u2018No bullying in any language,\u2019 but I didn\u2019t mean it to be anything but to correct\u201d one particular student she thought was bullying in Spanish, she claimed.<\/p>\n

After losing her job with the Juniata County School District, Crawford said she\u2019s now on Medicare, Medicaid and receives SNAP benefits.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had to go on antidepressants because of this,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The sign she posted on her bus. Juniata County resident<\/p>\n

Crawford, who owned the bus and was subcontracted to work the district by the Rohrer Bus company, said she got a call telling her that her contract had been terminated the night after she put up the sign.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I just instantly went into shock,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She insists she put up the sign to encourage students to be respectful and that it was directed at one particular bilingual student who would cause problems while speaking Spanish.<\/p>\n

Crawford has responded after her firing. WHP<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know if he was bullying somebody, telling them to do something that they shouldn\u2019t do,\u201d Crawford said. \u201cI thought I heard him saying \u2018Gordo\u2019 and \u2014 I understand some of (the words) \u2014 I don\u2019t know who he was talking to, but I assume he is directing at me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGordo\u201d is a Spanish word for \u201cfat.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Juniata County School District and Rohrer Bus said in a joint statement that their investigation came to a quick conclusion because Crawford admitted to writing the note.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile initial communications referenced a suspension pending investigation, the matter progressed quickly once the written statement was received, and a final decision was made without delay,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

\u201cJuniata County School District and Rohrer Bus stand by the decision made in this matter and remain committed to providing a safe and inclusive transportation environment for all students,\u201d district and bus company officials added. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Pennsylvania school bus driver who was fired for\u00a0putting up a sign\u00a0banning students from speaking Spanish said she…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67867,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7072,28,30,29,2939,302],"class_list":{"0":"post-67866","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pennsylvania","8":"tag-buses","9":"tag-pennsylvania","10":"tag-pennsylvania-headlines","11":"tag-pennsylvania-news","12":"tag-racism","13":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}