An English teacher has taken his class on a field trip in a bus fitted with a stripper pole, neon lights and sound system, highlighting a fault in the education system.
Jim Mayers, a teacher at Brooke Charter Schools in Boston, promised his 11th grade class a field trip, but the national bus-driver shortage meant he was unable to source a typical school bus.
Determined to stay true to his word, but with no other options, Mr Mayers managed to hire a pimped-out party bus the day before the outting.
The company, Deluxe Limousine, told Business Insider that this was the first time they'd been contracted by a school.
Mayers initially posted a photo of the interior of the bus to Twitter, where LED lights and a stripper pole could be seen along with some students in the background.
'Due to the national school bus driver shortage, my school has hired a party bus with stripper poles to transport us for a field trip. This is not a drill,' he captioned it.
‘Yes, this is a true story. However, the entire day was in fact a phenomenal experience for all the kids, they didn’t really care about the bus, and a lot of great planning by a lot of great people made for a fantastic day.’
Naturally, the tweet went viral, but Mayers decided to delete it claiming it was distracting from the real education issues.
'Over the past 24 hours, a lot of reporters have messaged me about an interview for a news story regarding the tweet I posted that went viral. While I find the attention amusing, I think it's worth reflecting on why this story, in particular, suddenly demands the voice of a teacher.'
'There have been so many other more important stories about education that have desperately needed the voices of a diverse array of teachers, and for some reason have not asked for them.'
'I'm worried that there is too much attention being paid to the tweet itself, or simply the fact that it went viral, instead of attending to the many systematic issues that are facing not just my students, but students all across the country.'
'I posted a sarcastic tweet about the bus, expecting only a few other teacher friends - and I literally mean 2 or 3 - of mine to see it, but here we are.'
a note about the tweet: pic.twitter.com/ZQTiOZbZLv
— Jim Mayers (@mayersteach) September 20, 2021
update: I deleted it.
— Jim Mayers (@mayersteach) September 21, 2021
The teacher is being praised by online users for taking a stand against the broken education system in the US, and Mayers hopes this might highlight the lack of prioritization that schools have in America and demonstrate how the nation-wide labour shortage directly affects young students.
Image Credit: Alive Party Bus, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons & Die4kids, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
