Rutgers University Bus Driver Claims He Was Fired For Praying For Disabled Student

CBS Local ^ | November 13, 2013

[rightwingintelligentsia]

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) – Rutgers University students are rallying around a popular bus driver who claims he was fired after praying for God to heal a wheelchair-bound passenger.

Driver Stan McNeil, a Christian who is known for doling out encouragement and inspiration, claims he was forced to resign recently because he put his hands on a disabled student and prayed for her.

He defended his actions in a nearly nine-minute video posted to YouTube earlier this week.

“I prayed for the lady, I put my hand on her and I prayed,” McNeil said. “They said we don’t need your services anymore. They said we don’t do that here.”

“I prayed for her and I’ll pray for the next one, too,” he added. “I don’t regret none of it. This is who I am. I ain’t going to back down from who I am…I’m all about God, brother. I ain’t compromising one bit.”

The First Transit bus company said it respects McNeil’s faith and that he was given the option to resign because of an unspecified safety violation.

[Oratam]

I worked with a guy, a kindly, little Jamaican fella in his 60s who delivered the mail, who was fired because his voice mail message ended with "and my God bless you."

That was almost 20 years ago.

[Mr. K]

what would they have done if he kneeled facing Mecca and recited the Koran?

[conejo99]

His actions could be heart warming or they could be creepy. It depends on the social situation. What did the disabled lady think of it? If she was anything less than encouraging of his behavior then he should definitely not have touched her.
From the number of signatures it seems he was likely responding to a willing participant in this social interaction.

[rightwingintelligentsia]

This is one of the comments at the site. I doubt he was viewed as "creepy."

I'm a Jewish Rutgers student and I identify as very left of center and believe in a separation of religion and public institutions. However, I loved Stan. He would give small sermons and preach to the students along his route, but they were never with purpose of converting students or pushing his religion. He was celebrating his background while trying to motivate students toward success. Being on his bus was often the best part of my day.

Thousands of students share my thoughts on this matter. Stan was a great man that always had a genuine smile on his face and when he said we could do anything, we believed him. We were his "winners" and the Rutgers community will be far less magical without him.

[FES0844]

Years ago, a male beautician preparing to cut my hair, put his hand on my shoulder & said a prayer for me. How he knew I was going through a time when I really needed the Lord, I will never know. It truly lifted me up & was a moment I will never forget.
God bless that compassionate man.

[Cowboy Bob]

Rutgers university picks up students in a school bus? Is there a bus monitor who rides along to make sure there are no fights? :)

[GeronL]

I'm a Jewish Rutgers student and I identify as very left of center and believe in a separation of religion and public institutions

A private bus company is not a public institution, of course.

[tbpiper]

option to resign because of an unspecified safety violation

When yu don't have a real reason, just make one up.

[duckworth]

Rutgers is a very bus-oriented campus — one of the reasons my kids didn’t even consider going there. The campus is disjointed and spread all over New Brunswick and Piscataway, and there’s a wide river between the towns. It’s really a pathetic layout that wasn’t too-well-thought-out back in 1766 — or when they split downtown New Brunswick in two with the Northeast Corridor train line.

[cincinnati65]

"what would they have done if he kneeled facing Mecca and recited the Koran?"

Promotion to Diversity Awareness Champion.

[wideawake]

It’s really a pathetic layout that wasn’t too-well-thought-out back in 1766

It began as a small seminary in a converted farmhouse with fewer than ten students.

I'm sure the original trustees never imagined a student body larger than two hundred or so.

It was perfectly suited to its founders' original purpose.

[dead]

Additionally, the layout made much more sense when the colleges (Rutgers, Livingston, Douglass, Cook) were all separate schools. When they were centralized under the Rutgers University banner, the buses became necessary.

So the buses aren't the issue. The overwhelming leftism of the faculty and the Administration is an issue.

I know, absolutely and without a shred of doubt, that if he was islamic praying to allah, or a Navajo praying to the bear god, they would have celebrated his actions, not fired him for them.

[Graybeard58]

Rutgers university picks up students in a school bus? Is there a bus monitor who rides along to make sure there are no fights? :)

Since the buses run before and after school, they are able to utilize the monitor who monitors recess.

[relictele]

The entire physical world is ‘public’ in the minds of lefties!

How else can they attempt to restrict smoking, gun ownership and other activities occurring on so-called private property?

By the way, have you installed all your CF bulbs yet?

[Incorrigible]

Unfortunately my daughter is insisting that Rutgers’ is where she wants to go to school despite my attempts to dissuade her.

[dead]

It's a good school at a good price. If she sticks to the sciences, there should be little leftwing influence.

I went for the humanities, and still got through the attempted indoctrination unscathed.

It's a microcosm of New Jersey, with a bunch of liberal nitwits in charge, but plenty of conservatives fighting against the tide.

If she shows up a blank slate, they'll fill her mind with nonsense. But I suspect you've already given her a solid mindset to ignore their crap and concentrate on her studies.

[GeronL]

so true