Florida Boy Suspended For Passing Gas on the Bus

An eighth grade student at Bill Duncan Excel Center in south Lakeland has been suspended from riding his school bus for three days. He didn't cuss the driver, bully other students or do anything more harmful than farting.

Yes, Jonathon Locke, Jr. can't ride the bus because he farted. The Lakeland Ledger reports that Jonathon says he isn't even the child that passed wind. That made no difference to the bus driver.

"Jonathan passes gas on the bus to make the other children laugh and it is so stink [sic] that you can't breathe after he does it," the bus driver wrote on a misbehavior form.

While passing gas isn't on the rule books according to Jerome Corbett, senior director of specialized services for the Polk County School District disturbing the bus is.

Fred Murphy, assistant superintendent of support services, directed calls to Corbett but said that "if it (passing gas) caused a disruption on the bus, that would be an issue to deal with."

According to Jonathon on Monday another student on the bus passed gas and he laughed because it was a bad smell. The next day the bus driver handed him a suspension form and ordered the boy off of his bus. Jonathon had to call his father for a ride home. Papa Jonathon is not very happy about the matter.

"I had no notice about anything," Locke said. "It's costing me time (at work)."

This isn't the first time his son has been in trouble at school. Bill Duncan is an alternative school of last-chance. Jonathon is attending after being expelled from Mulberry Middle School for fighting. If a student is expelled from Bill Duncan they are kicked out of the district school system for good.