We know that we must stand up for those that weren't lucky enough in their lives, but what happens when integrity gets punished? Johnny Cook was a bus driver for Haralson County Middle School and when a serious and unfair incident happened to one of the students he couldn't stay there and do nothing.
It was an ordinary day for Johnny when a child came up to him and told him that the school had denied to give him food because he was forty cents short. The little child was devastated and Johnny tried to comfort him and make him feel better.
But how could this be possible?
When Johnny heard that he tried not to let the child notice how furious he was. His mind couldn't comprehend how could anyone and especially a school deny a child food because of it being forty cents short.
At that point, he knew he had to do something. He couldn't let this pass.
Even though he couldn't stay with his arms crossed, he didn't know where to seek help in order to solve the matter. Moreover, he was so frustrated that couldn't think straight.
How could a school do this to one of the children? That was unacceptable!
After hours of thinking about what to do, he finally decided to share his thoughts and frustration of the incident by making a post on Facebook. This way more people would start to know about the incident and maybe someone would be able to guide Johnny on how to handle the matter.
Little did he know that this might not be a great idea.
Johnny decided to post his frustration about the incident on Facebook. The Facebook post became soon viral and many frustrated users shared it. No one could believe how a school treated one of its students.
However, our story doesn't end here. What the school did next will make you even madder!
It was common sense that sooner or later the Facebook post would be discovered by the school after the hundreds of shares. So when the school found out what their bus driver had posted about them they were really furious.
But what they did next was unexpected and shocked everyone.
The school denied everything and claimed that something like that had never happened there. They said that whenever a kid doesn't have enough money for the standard lunch it would be given an alternative one.
In no circumstance, they would let a kid be hungry. And as far as Johnny was concerned they threaten him to be fired if he didn't remove the post.
The school was very frustrated with Johnny. What had happened had caused severe damage to the school's reputation.
They would do anything to solve the matter even if that meant to fire Johnny.
Moreover, the school claimed that the little boy had never gotten into the lunch line that day. They said that if he had gone through the line, the cameras would have caught him, but there was no such footage.
They continued by saying that such an incident would never happen in their school.
“I felt like in my heart of hearts, the kid was telling me the truth,” Johnny claimed. “Whether he was, whether he wasn’t—I believed him,” he added.
Why would a child say something like that if it wasn't true? That's what Johnny was thinking all the time.
He believed the child and he couldn't go against that. He had a strong feeling that this child was telling the truth and wanted to make sure that no matter what the world will no about the incident.
So he made his decision. He decided to keep the post and continue to fight for this kid's rights.
After deciding what he would finally do, he updated the post and the world went crazy.
His post got shared 180,000 times all over the world and everyone was applauding him for his bravery to stand up for this child.
Well, we will never know if the child was telling the truth that day, but Johnny became a symbol to many as he stood up for a child that just wanted to have his lunch.
Moreover, many others claimed that their children have experienced the same thing in their schools.
Even though the little boy didn't want to be interviewed he supported Johnny and followed his posts on Facebook.
He also wrote the following statement supporting Johnny's actions.
Okay, it's maybe not what everyone was expecting from the kid, but it's enough to prove that both of them were telling the truth.
It doesn't matter that the child didn't want to be interviewed because he wrote everything down and made everyone understand that Johnny wasn't lying.
The poor child claims that his school denied to give him food because he didn't have the money to pay for it.
And even though the school claims that something like that didn't happen, the child says otherwise.
Johnny felt really good that he was able to help a child in need and raise awareness for a more common situation that you think.
He is very thankful for the support that he received and he doesn't regret a thing.
“I’m proud that I was able to take a stand where others might not have been able to,” he said.
“And that I can maybe—in some little way—cause a change,” Johnny said regretting nothing of his actions and feeling proud of himself that he managed to stand up in such an unfair situation.
It's really important to help people in need and even though it might be tough it's worth it. Johnny fought for this child and everyone stood by him and even though he lost his job he would do the same thing a million times more.
We hope that both the kid and Johnny are doing great!