No Shirt, No City Name, No Thanks: The “Substitute” Bus Debacle (Ep. 326)

No Shirt, No City Name, No Thanks: The “Substitute” Bus Debacle (Ep. 326)

A teenager stands at a quiet bus stop before dawn. An unmarked bus pulls up. The driver, mask on and shirtless, claims to be a substitute and opens the door. She listens to her gut, steps back, and waits for her real bus. That split-second choice is where our conversation begins—and why we won’t let it end with silence.

We walk through the parent’s public PSA, the report to police, and the unsettling gap where a school alert should have been. Then we get specific: what are the red flags kids must know on sight, and how do families practice calm refusal under pressure? From verifying route numbers and district branding to using a family code word, we share simple, repeatable steps that turn instinct into action. We also broaden the lens—why do some spaces get robust security while low-profile moments, like early bus stops or cheer competitions, are left exposed? Safety can’t be a spotlight only turned on for big games; it needs to shine where risks hide in routine.

We talk accountability without theatrics: how transportation offices can confirm and notify within minutes, what information belongs in rapid alerts, and how local law enforcement and community groups can layer support at known pickup points. Documentation matters—timestamps, intersections, and clear descriptions speed real investigations. Most of all, we defend the value of speaking up. The parent who shared this story may have prevented harm, and that courage deserves backup, not backlash. If leaders want trust, they need visible processes, clear thresholds for alerts, and the humility to communicate while facts develop.

If you’re a parent, educator, or local leader, this is a practical guide to protecting kids without stoking panic—equipping them to pause, verify, and say no when something feels off. Listen, share with someone who needs it, and help build a community where vigilance is normal and alerts are timely. Subscribe for more conversations that turn concern into action, and leave a review to tell us the one safety step you’ll teach today.

Chapter Markers

0:00 Welcome & Mission Check

1:44 National Podcast Day & Recent Episodes

3:30 Why Child Safety Is Front and Center

6:45 Local Alert: The Suspicious Bus Incident

12:40 Reading the Parent’s PSA

18:10 Where Was the School’s Alert?

22:30 Community Responsibility and Accountability

27:40 Vigilance, Voice, and Mental Health

33:20 Platform, Pushback, and Free Speech

39:00 Equal Safety for All Students

44:00 An Open Invitation and Next Steps

48:40 Closing Thanks & Be a Voice

#SubstituteSchoolBus #SchoolTransportFails #BusConfusion #SchoolTransitNews #TransportationStories #TravelingWithoutClothes #stowohio #stowmunroefallsohio #stowohioschooldistrict #munroefallsohioschooldistrict #schoolbusstop #safetyconcern #studentsafetyconcern #substituteschoolbusdriver #safety #security #justiceforsurvivors #justice4survivors #VoicesforVoices #VoicesforVoicesPodcast #JustinAlanHayes #JustinHayes #help3billion #TikTok #Instagram #truth #factoverfictionmatters #transparency #VoiceForChange #HealingTogether #VoicesForVoices326

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome & Mission Check
• 1:44 National Podcast Day & Recent Episodes
• 3:30 Why Child Safety Is Front and Center
• 6:45 Local Alert: The Suspicious Bus Incident
• 12:40 Reading the Parent’s PSA
• 18:10 Where Was the School’s Alert?
• 22:30 Community Responsibility and Accountability
• 27:40 Vigilance, Voice, and Mental Health
• 33:20 Platform, Pushback, and Free Speech
• 39:00 Equal Safety for All Students
• 44:00 An Open Invitation and Next Steps
• 48:40 Closing Thanks & Be a Voice

Transcript

JustinAlanHayesVoicesforVoices: 0:02

Hey everyone, Justin here, Voices for Voices. Thank you for joining us today. We are grateful for your love and support. Uh, we do have a portfolio of well over 320 episodes, and we would appreciate if you could give us thumbs up, like, follow, subscribe, share. All those things are free for you to do. And it helps us get closer to our mission of helping 3 billion people over the course of my lifetime and beyond. Uh things are going fast and furious, and we're gonna hop right in. Uh, yesterday, I didn't realize was National Podcasting Day or National Podcast Day. Uh so I I I guess it's a belated happy uh podcast day, uh holiday. Uh what we did do though, uh, actually, and it's uh just how we do things. Uh we uh we share content, we share information, and uh especially when we start talking about safety concerns uh in the public, we want to uh get that out. And so we actually dropped two uh episodes yesterday on National Podcast Day. That's episode 324 and 325. This is episode 326. So a lot to take in. Uh uh our our most recent episode was on child safety. On you know, what what value, what price tag do we put on the lives of our children? And you can check out all that on our previous episodes. You can catch us everywhere. Uh, we are on Yahoo or not YouTube. Uh we have the YouTube channel, we have a rumble channel, and any and all uh audio platforms, or you can just head on over to voices4voices.org forward slash podcast, and you can get all of our episodes an audio version with the latest episode at the very top. So you don't have to do any of that scrolling, which it gets to be gets to be a pain after after a while uh trying to scroll down to the the the latest and greatest. Uh so uh I am I'm floored again. I didn't I didn't think it could happen this short amount of time. I am absolutely floored. Uh again, we're we're gonna be highlighting child safety, children safety, school children, safety, safety of the general public. And I want to thank uh uh one of uh one of the members uh and confidants uh and part of Voices for Voices for sharing this information uh with me because I am not necessarily and we are not necessarily uh in this particular group. Uh, you know, there's all kind of groups on social media platforms, and and so there's uh there's a group that uh is for the area that uh we live in. And it is a group where people share different information from time to time. And when this crossed the wire and I saw this, I just could not could not believe this is happening. Now we know things happen, right? You know, you heard me say yesterday or on the previous episode how you know we've gotten immune, not immune, but uh uh naturalized, or uh where it's just a known thing that, oh yeah, these terrible events uh you know that happen at the Church of Latter-day Saints, the Charlie Kirk event. Uh, you know, these things don't happen where I live. This is something that happened somewhere else and to someone else. And while I was going through that public children public safety uh episode, I was sharing uh some information, and you can check out exactly what uh but it was local in nature information, and it was public health, public safety concern. And this episode is gonna be very similar, but this is a lot closer to home. So, for all you people, all you naysayers, all you haters, you may not like voices for voices, you may not like some of the topics we talk about because they're real, because they actually happen, because we allow people to share their voice and voices, and we bring up information and topics that very few people, if any, want to cover and want to do something about, and we want to do something about, and we want to cover, and so that's why we're we're doing a whole show on this, because uh over the weekend, uh, which is what drove that episode, uh, an earlier episode on the public safety of children at a large gathering in the middle of a beautiful, bright, sunny day, and with a couple thousand uh you know, parents, loved ones, friends, family, you you name it. And so I talked about that the lack of law enforcement, which was zero, that I saw. So again, these are my opinions uh from what I saw and what I experienced. And I was there uh at that at this particular place, uh, this venue for six hours, and so were a lot of the other attendees, as well as the children who were uh in the cheerleading competition. So check out that episode, that'll get you up to speed. But I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired of these particular things that are happening, and they're happening right here in Northeast Ohio, in Stowe, Ohio. Uh, this isn't happening in some again, some faraway land. Um this has happened, and I applaud the individual who made this post because it was brave to make that post because it can draw all kinds of scrutiny as as I have and experience, and we experience that voices for voices. Uh, and and so what uh what we're gonna do now is uh I'm gonna share uh I'm gonna share a TikTok post that I made uh solely off of another person, which are gonna see their name. So they're gonna have that credit. I did not make this post. Oh, I made the TikTok post, but the original post where the information that we're gonna be delving into um was not not not by me. So I want to make that very clear. Uh I just happen to live in an area that is very uh very near and dear to where uh this particular uh occurrence happened. And so we'll just start with with uh let's just start with uh my post, uh my tick tock post. You know, we have a TikTok channel, Voices for Voices. Check us out there as well. We're we're everywhere. Uh you can't miss us. We already have uh almost 4,000 views in just a very short period of time. So what my post said, and then and then I'm gonna show you the post itself. Uh, so the title of this post is Please Alert Your Children, exclamation mark. This is happening in our neighborhoods, exclamation mark. And then the post goes on to say, my post, our post as an organization, you may not agree with voices for voices, but we talk about real topics impacting real human beings. In fact, our last episode, uh again, I talked about uh public safety as well and in that in uh public health, public safety concerns, and especially as it relates to children. So check out our uh TikTok channel after after you uh check our episode out here. Uh that will that will get you to that to that uh that that point. So what I'm gonna show you, I'm gonna pull up on the screen so we all can see, and I'm gonna read through it uh for those who are uh uh listening who aren't uh able to see uh at the at the current time. So let me see if I can navigate this sharing thing we got here on Zoom. Okay. Uh and we're gonna do this content only share. All right, so says you're okay. So let me do this. Trying to get um okay, so this morning, let me see on the screen. I'm screen sharing, so I'm just hoping that this actually is showing up. Uh we're gonna find out. Okay, so uh the the the post or the or the guest the group is uh called Stowe Monroe Falls, uh, Ohio, I believe is is what the what what's where the dot dot dots are. This was uh this was uh again shared with with with us. Uh and so you know, we have we have feeling, we have poll, we have recent activity, and this is all topics. So this is how this particular uh this particular post was found, just everything you see here. Uh or or if you're not able to view, uh if you're listening, uh there's topics such as garage sale, yard sale, photographs, photography. And this individual, which I don't know, but I want to say thank you. I hope uh he or she, uh I'm not able to to to to tell, uh, but thank you for being so brave to uh to post this, to bring it to our attention or confidant's attention. Um one of our biggest contributors uh to content and and information, and got that information to us, so then we can again we share this on on TikTok, and we are doing an episode on it, and so that's what we're doing. Um, so this individual's name is uh Rai Ann, which is R-Y-A-N-N, and then uh looks like Jaeger, uh J A G G E R. Uh I can't exactly uh see there's a uh you know like a profile photo. I I can't zoom in and see uh that's not the point. Uh we're getting to the point. So Ryan, let's say Jagger or Jaeger, 12 hours ago from when this post was pulled, posted PSA, which usually uh means public safety announcement, public safety concern, public health concern, etc. So I'm reading this in full, and so these are not my words, these are Ryan Yeager, Jager's uh words. And again, we're talking about a Stowe Monroe Falls, Ohio group that this this uh particular post was uh pulled from PSA. This morning, my high school daughter was waiting for her bus at 6:30 in our neighborhood, in parentheses, near Hibbert between 91 and Fish Creek. Uh close close a parentheses. A school bus that did not have a city name on it pulled up to her stop. The driver opened the doors and told my daughter he was her substitute bus driver. Again, these are the words as as uh as uh typed by Ryan Jagger or Ryan Jagger as a public safety announcement and the stone Monroe Falls, Ohio uh group on social media continue in Ryan's words. Her sister, uh her sister, Ryan's daughter, she so she, the daughter, says that this uh supposed substitute bus driver had no shirt on, was wearing a surgical mask, and had lots of tattoos. Fortunately, she had her wits about her and did not get on the bus and walked away fast. A few minutes later, continuing Ryan's uh words, a few minutes later, her actual bus appeared and she immediately told the bus driver who said she would inform the bus garage, which I pray occurred. Uh if it hasn't, it will after this this uh this show drops. I have no idea if that happened, but it's disconcerting to me that no alert was broadcast by the school. Uh meaning if Ryan's daughter saw something, didn't seem right, told the actual bus driver, and there was no safety uh alert, but that was broadcasted by the school. Ryan goes on to say, I have made a report to the police. Thank you for doing that, Ryan. It's very brave to post this, but it's even braver to go and make that uh report to the police. And then Ryan uh the her post finishes with, I just wanted to make sure other families were aware and could be vigilant. Uh exclamation mark. And so this is a public safety concern. We've talked many times on many different ways. Individuals are obscuring their identity, who they are, what their intentions are. Um, and for this to happen so close to home, not just not just so close to where my family calls home. I'm talking about a whole school district. I'm not just talking about uh still Monroe Falls, I'm talking about all Northeast Ohio, I'm talking about not even just Northeast Ohio, I'm talking about all Ohio, I'm talking about every state in the United States of America that this event, which the best of my knowledge, in good faith, looks to have happened. These aren't posts. This isn't a post that is you know meant to be a joke. This is the real deal. This is serious stuff. And so again, I'll say, when is enough enough? When's enough enough? Again, what's the what what what's the price for a child's safety? Oh, we don't have the money because of this, that, and the other. Well, we can have law enforcement, we can have ENT, we can have all that at uh high school football games, but no, we can't we can't do that at a cheerleading competition. Uh and this report, which I have no other way to think that Ryan did anything but what it says in her his or her post of going to the police making this report, and then saying her daughter, his or her daughter, made this report and let her actual her actual bus driver know about this. And they said they would let the garage know. And for no alert to go out is indeed alarming. So again, when when's enough enough? What what what other signs do we need to see as a society? And I'm not just I'm not talking about places far away. I'm talking about where we live, where a lot of people live. So to say, oh, this this doesn't happen where we live, oh blah, blah, blah. I don't know. I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired of these part of my language, these bullshit responses or lack of response by the school district. Did the bus garage even get notified? Did the bus driver remember to tell the bus garage? Maybe they did. And then who at the bus garage uh validates that and shares with the police, which would corroborate with Ryan's police report that would prove that this happened. And what are we gonna do as a community to stop this? I'm not just worried about our the community I live in or live near. Uh I'm talking about all communities. This individual, if true, has a school bus with no city name on it. The driver opens the doors and says, Oh, I'm the substitute bus driver. Come on in. Everything's okay. And they got a surgical mask, nothing against masks, just uh I'm just reiterating what what is uh what is what is said in this post. So I have this up on the screen that you're able to see, you're able to look through. Maybe you know this individual. Uh we take all threats, all things like this serious. And we want law enforcement to take these serious. We want bus garages, we want, we want our schools again. Why didn't the schools send an alert? Oh, because it wasn't it didn't fall into a certain category, or because we didn't want to we don't want to alarm people. Okay, we don't want to alarm people, but but what about uh if there were any children that did get on that bus? I don't know. I don't know if there were any children on that bus. I don't know if right Ryan daughter saw any other children on that bus, or if any uh any children after she had uh again in Ryan's words, uh her wits about herself and didn't get on. So we can't do anything from like you know a school district level. Uh we can't put an alert out. But if we find out that any children locally are have gone missing, and this this is part of it, there's gonna be a lot more explaining needs to be done. I'm talking about city council, I'm talking about the school board, I'm talking about the mayor, I'm talking about uh our representatives, state representatives. When are we gonna when is this gonna click? Is it okay because it's not our well that's not my child, or my children are grown, so I don't have to worry about that. That's bullshit. Straight up. You're there to help people. That's why you're there. We may not agree on a lot of issues, and that's okay. We're we're humans, we're we're different. We we we agree and believe and disagree and and uh have healthy conversation about topics. But the fact that this happened, I I I can't say it shocks me. Because if you've been following Voices for Voices for any period of time, we've brought up lots of information about lots of people, very specific people who things have been proved out in certain ways on certain uh certain issues that they they would uh wouldn't have quite an issue with having somebody in their gr uh a group of theirs that uh nay uh I'm just gonna move on from that. So this public service announcement from Ryan, thank you so much for putting us out here. So sorry that you had and have to go through this and deal with the trauma that your daughter has to go through any trauma uh because of this. But thank the good Lord that your daughter had her wits about her, as you say. And what I like to say is I I pray, I pray and pray and pray that no children got on that bus. Wherever that bus is at, wherever that bus goes. What the true motive of that individual is I don't know. But it's falsifying being a bus driver with no city and a driver not to be wearing a shirt. Said, oh well I'm the I'm the substitute bus driver thank the good lord, Ryan, uh your daughter had had her wits about her and thank you as a parent to have taught her that in in a moment like that we say if we see something, say something. And Ryan, thank you. You you saw something, your daughter saw something, she said something to the bus driver, her actual bus driver, who again we we don't know where things went from there. Uh, but thank you for saying something to the uh the the Stowman Fall police uh about this particular incident that that happened this morning. And there may be others that it also happened to uh not not just not just your your your daughter. Okay. We're back here we are. We got a little bit of a little bit of sun trying to trying to block here out of uh the side here. Yeah, so what what do you think about that? What do you think about that? You think that's okay? You think it's okay to for this for this to happen? What what would you do? What were what would your children or your nephews, your grandkids? Are there children in your class in your class or your teacher? It's a very scary time, very scary moment. And when nobody listens. And again, I on on on on the post on TikTok, you can see uh again, share it, share it, share it, share it, share it. It says in just for Stowe, Ohio, it's not just for Stowe Minroom Falls, Ohio. Is this for everybody across the country? Is this for everybody across the world that has children that has transportation uh that takes them to and from school, to and from an event? Uh it's for everybody. It's when I say we want to help people. It goes it goes further than just this community. It just happened that this particular incident happened in uh in a close community to where uh we we live. And that's scary. So it really brings up that question, right? Do we use our voice or do we not? What's more beneficial? And that's that's that's where we're at. Do we use our voice or don't we? And when we use our voice, and when we share concerns, and we share individuals' situations, experiences, stories, events, trauma, all with that underpinning of mental health. Is it better to use our voice or not? That is the trillion dollar question. I'm always going to argue it's always the right thing to do to use our voice and to share, share, share. No matter how many people agree, disagree, like, dislike, have a hurtful comment, a nice comment. I always will believe that using our voices is the best thing to do. And right, you know, we want to we want to stay away from confrontation. I get that. Again, at what cost? We're talking about children. Talk about human beings. What if what if one child got on that bus this morning? What what if that happened? And what that that what if that child goes missing? Well that child may never be found. See, that's that's what we're that's what we're trying to bring the awareness to that so often things happen, things occur. Either A, nobody wants to talk about it, B, they want to talk about it, but don't have a platform to do so. Or C or three, they do have a platform and they do want to share their voice. And so that's voices for voices. That's what we are. We are that platform, we are that TV show and podcast. We are that show, that podcast that has over 320 episodes, not 100, not 200, not 300, over 320. And so you can look at all the statistics, and I'll say it again because it needs repeated. Everybody wants to have a podcast, everybody wants to have a show. Oh, it's so easy to do. Well, the facts show that at a macro level, so at the big the biggest level possible, of all the all the podcasts that are out there that ever have been made and uh and and are still to this day in new ones, of all those, fewer make it to a hundred shows, episodes, podcast episodes, even fewer make it to 200, and even fewer make it to 300, and we're at 324, 325, 326, and we are not stopping. And it's okay to disagree with what we talk about. That's okay again. It's your your your right as a U.S. citizen to agree to disagree to disagree. Um, it's also our right to share and use that first amendment free speech. You don't like what we have to say? Again, there's there's other other shows out there. Turn those on. Don't waste our show's bandwidth on you. If you have something hurtful to say, something hurtful to think, turn a channel. Turn a channel. That's all we say. So is it better to use our voice or not? I and others are being crucified at the at the at the current time for using our voices, for talking about topics that people don't usually like to talk about. And I'm not gonna get no specifics. Again, we have 320 plus episodes. You can find you can find all that information in other episodes in our in our portfolio. And so we do, we we bring up, we bring up hard things, we bring up things where people have been hurt uh physically, mentally, you name it. In this show, this specific show, what we just did, where we showed proof from our best of our knowledge, in good faith from my own community, neighboring community. When's enough gonna be enough? Why are we trying to silence people from sharing their voice? Why are we shunning people like myself, like voices for voices, like past guests, future guests, people that interact and see us out in the community, at a grocery store, at an event, at a gas station, just out and about, just being a human being. I will always stand by sharing our voice, whatever that may be. And I know some individuals are non-verbal, but they're still able to share their voice in other ways. So I'm not just talking about, well, I'm grateful that I'm able to speak. So we need to be more proactive, allowing people to share their voices, not condemning them. Life is life, is dangerous. Day to day, life is dangerous. We have people who are making decisions to end the lives of children inside the belly of a pregnant mother, and they make these decisions day after day. So when decisions like that are being made that early, again, I I am grateful to be alive at this age to be able to do it do what we're doing here at Voices for Voices. And I don't want an award, I don't need an award. This isn't about me. This is about human beings that can be helped, and I know and I pray that this particular show, as well as the others, that we're talking on this show right now, that what we just shared is gonna help. It might ring the alarm bells, might wake some people up that have the power and the authority, and then that's good. Sometimes we need we we need that, and if people aren't doing their job and they're you know just all honed in and focused in on athletics because well that brings in the money and you know ticket sales and booster club and all that, I get that. But is somebody who is a cheerleader any less of a human being than a person that plays on the football team? Is that person on the football team is their life matter more than that that that cheerleader who's on the sidelines or who has a cheer competition in front of thousands of people? And if you say yes, who made you God? Who made you God to decide whose life is more is is more important? Because I'm gonna argue till the end of time, the end of my time that they are equal and they should be treated as such. So I hope this is what is what woken some people up from a slumber, from a sleep, from a daydream. I don't know. But what I want to say is thank you, Ryan. Thank you for sharing. Your daughter had to experience what she did. Thank you for being a parent that cares so that when this situation occurred, your daughter knew exactly what to do, which was nothing, was to just wait. Her eyes didn't misguide her, her ears didn't misguide her. She knew she knew in her mind something wasn't right, and so that child, too, Ryan, your daughter is just as important as that football player, as that president, as that superintendent, as that teacher, as that ambassador. And so share your voice, use your voice. Don't let anybody tell you you can't. Those people are jealous, they're envious that they're not the ones. It's not even about the limelight, it's about helping people so they do not ever, ever, ever get on that bus or in that car, or in that van, or in that SUV. Something doesn't look right. So what if you're a little bit late because something didn't look right and you go back into the house and you share with your family, and you're you're driven or another means of transportation to get to school because to be 10 minutes late for school and to have a life is the better is better than being on time for a uh not real substitute bus driver for the Stowe Monroe Falls School District. So thank you for joining us on this episode of the show. We're grateful for all the love and support that's been shown. We agree to disagree on some topics, some areas. But let me end with this. This happened in our community. So I don't want to hear anybody say, well, this won't happen in our community. This this happens far away. Those times are long past. Things have, are, and will continue, and our organization is going to continue to be an outlet. So, Ryan, I invite you if you'd like to be a guest on uh a future episode. That's that's completely up to you. I'm just giving that invitation if if your daughter would like to. But I just want to let you know that there are people who care, and we want to not only make sure your daughter has her wits about her, which she does, but uh as many if if not all children have their wits to never get onto that bus like your daughter did. She's so brave, courageous, uh just amazing. And so re reach out, uh Ryan, uh if if if you'd like to be on uh an episode and and go into depth. We'd love to love to have you uh expand on that and how how that made you feel. And uh again, we have we have we have reach not just here in the local northeast Ohio area, over 80 countries, 800 cities across the world, near and far. We want to help three billion people over the course of my lifetime and beyond. And let's let's try to let's try to do that together, if you'd like. So you can you can reach out to us, let me know, and we'll we'll have you and your daughter, or just you. It's completely uh your call, uh, but the invitation is open. And thank you for posting and what you did. It's so important. And you you did the remarkable thing by making that post. That post probably has or will save lives because of that. So thank you for that. And we wanted to highlight that. Thank you for being a great parent, teaching your your daughter what you've taught her. And until next time, this is Justin Alan Hayes with Voices for Voices. And we we always like to say please be a voice for you or somebody in need. We'll see you next time. Bye bye, everybody.