In June, a bus driver transporting a group of middle school students after a field trip to the zoo passed President Bush’s motorcade. The students waved out the window as the president waved back. The driver gave Bush “the finger.” After she reportedly bragged about the incident to co-workers, she was promptly fired.

According to an Associated Press article, the bus driver is filing a wrongful-termination grievance with her union. Though her action while on the job, driving a bus full of students, justified disciplinary action, the driver should get her job back.

The bus company fired her on the grounds that she was being a poor role model for students. While all people working around children should be extra careful to behave in a professional manner, being a role model isn’t as central to a bus driver’s job as it is for a teacher. Unless the driver had a recurring problem with profanity around students, it’s unfair to terminate her after what was probably an isolated, spur-of-the-moment incident. Had the driver flipped off a motorist who cut her off and not the president, she probably would not have been punished on severely. It seems inconsistent to fire her after this incident.

In all likelihood, most of the students probably didn’t even see the gesture. Had the bus driver gotten in trouble because students were excitedly spreading the news that she flipped off the president, it might be a different matter. That being said, most middle schoolers have at least a passing familiarity with obscene gestures.

And Bush’s reaction to the incident? He turned to his companion, Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Wash., who hadn’t seen the gesture, and said, “That one’s not a fan.” Perhaps the district should bear that in mind – the president didn’t get overly worked up over a gesture made in passing, and they shouldn’t either.