When bus driver Anne-Marie Barton was asked to drive nearly a hundred Orthodox Jewish teenage boys on a field trip from their summer camp, she didn’t know what to expect.
“I’d been told Jews were disrespectful and leave a lot of garbage,” she explained in an Aish.com exclusive interview. Barton lives in Sullivan County, a largely rural area about a two and a half drive hour north of New York City. For much of the year the area is quiet, but each summer thousands of visitors, including many Orthodox Jews, travel there for extended summer vacations. The sudden influx of visitors can lead to anti-Semitism, Ms. Barton has found.
“Some people really do hate the Jews,” she explains. When friends heard that her company was sending her to drive a group of 99 Jewish boys from their summer camp to a nearby bowling alley and back, some people warned her the trip would be unpleasant. “This was my first experience driving Jews, or interacting with the Jewish community,” Ms. Barton recalls. “I really was nervous only based on what I read on Facebook and what you hear in the community.”
Driving a large bus full of children can be stressful at the best of times. “There are a lot of kids, a lot of garbage, a lot of screaming.” Acquaintances told Barton that Jewish boys would be particularly ill-behaved. "I thought I’d have to spend an hour cleaning up the bus afterwards," she recalls.
Instead, her experience was so positive she felt she had to write about it on a local Sullivan County community Facebook page. Her post quickly went viral:
I had a bus full of 14-year-old boys...and I could not have asked for a better behaved, polite and grateful group of boys. Each one thanked me as they got on my bus and again as they got off. I asked them all not to leave a mess and there was not one thing left on my bus. Not ONE thing!!
Anne-Marie. Barton told Aish.com that each boy thanked her personally, several times – when she first picked them up, as she dropped them off at the bowling alley, then when they re-boarded her bus to go back to camp, and once again when the bus returned to the camp. Children found something personal to say, telling Ms. Barton they hoped she had a nice rest of her day or enjoyed a nice dinner with her family that night.
“You don’t have children who behave like this by accident,” Barton says. “Not 99 of them! That’s children who are brought up with respect, with dignity.”
The boys were so different from what she’d been told about the Jewish community, she felt she just had to write about it publicly and take a public stand combatting the anti-Semitic stereotypes that she often hears.
In the days since her post began circulating, Ms. Barton has heard from well-wishers around the world. She chuckles as she recalls that people have messaged her from as far away as Israel. Some people have even told her they’d like to send her flowers to thank her for her post. “I don’t want flowers and I don’t want recognition,” Barton explains. A happily married stepmother and foster mother to nine children, Ms. Barton hopes that her post will help make the world a more positive place. “I hope it can help, even if it helps one person to be nicer to somebody else.”
Anne-Marie Barton wants people to think twice before saying anything hateful about Jews or other groups, and hopes that her story about the 99 Jewish teenagers she shared can make the world a better, more considerate place.
(20) Charline L Birdsall, August 1, 2019 3:16 PM
kids on a bus
I have driven large school buses and that can be a night mare!! The first time I drove I resorted to stopping the bus just a little way from the school until the noise stopped and then I laid down the rules!!! I have even had teens fight on the bus and they I took them back to the school and made them get off the bus!! It caused quite a fuss but their mother straightened them out and then they were better!!! To have a group of youngsters thank you is awesome and it is a reflection of the homes they come from!!!
(19) Laurie Rothberg, July 27, 2019 10:18 PM
There’s always a scapegoat for hate. Humans never stop.
I live in Sullivan County,Eldred.
People resent the intrusion of so many folks in the summer.
So, they find something they don’t like and magnify it a thousand fold.
(18) CHARLES D. GELFAND, July 24, 2019 4:50 AM
Thank you for your kind words.
I must praise this wonderful woman for her kindness she expressed against the stereotypical anti semitism we too often encounter.
Thank you ma’am, and may God bless you.
(17) Rachel, July 24, 2019 1:53 AM
Social media is dangerous
Ms Barton got her misinformation in part from Facebook. 25 years ago, she would not have been reading anti-Semitic tropes in any decent local or national newspaper. Social media has allowed the proliferation of baseless claims that could have resulted in libel charges were they published in the press. I beg everyone to get off these platforms. Why would you support companies that allow this misinformation to flourish?
(16) Thomas Golbert, July 23, 2019 3:29 PM
Exemplary conduct of Jewish teenage boys.
I loved the article by Yvette Alt Miller. It needs to be published in nonJewish literature as well as Jewish literature.
(15) Linda J Gross, July 23, 2019 12:57 PM
I really like this story. It was very important as hate mongering of Jews and other is increasing.
(14) Anonymous, July 23, 2019 12:28 PM
Impressed with amazing driver & the Jewish boys !Dear
Dear Anna-Marie Barton, Thank G-d for people like you!! I am so proud of our Jewish boys and so impressed with you! Yes , you do make the world a better place!!
(13) Anonymous, July 22, 2019 10:32 PM
Very touching not to judge anyone if not knowing special Jews the choosing people of God bless !!
Love the story it remains me to bless Israel!!
(12) Anonymous, July 22, 2019 5:06 PM
What an amazing experience she had and to report it as such! Kudos to her, the 99 boys and especially to the boys’ parents who have instilled politeness in their sons!
(11) Avraham cohen, July 22, 2019 2:59 PM
The importance of being a mentsch
"Derech eretz kadma la'Torah" ... acting in the right way and being a mentsch precedes the laws of the Torah. We learn this from all the stories about our forefathers and foremothers in the Book of Genesis - which preceded all almost all of the 613 mitzvos given later in the Torah. If you are rude and lack civility, how do you expect people to respect you and what you stand for? Yasher koach to these boys, their parents, their teachers – and to this bus driver who gave credit when credit is due!
(10) MESA, July 22, 2019 2:35 PM
I hope yeshivot will read and share this with their students and remind them how important it is to behave well and make a Kiddush Hashem. I also hope that the parents of these yeshiva students are proud of them. This was awesome.
(9) buzz, July 22, 2019 6:18 AM
Kindness & Respect
It's one thing to know the truth about an event and people, but another to share it with the world in spite of what the haters say all the time. My sincere thanks to Ms. Barton. Gold Bless her for her truth and kindness.
(8) Daniel, July 22, 2019 1:47 AM
Great story
We need to learn from this story to teach students to be polite, grateful, clean and always make a kiddish Hashem. We see the excellent impact it has on others (not to mention ourselves).
(7) Chavi Hertz, July 22, 2019 1:11 AM
Beautiful article
Please thank Ms. Barton for sharing her experience,those boys made a real kiddish Hashem and their parents should be very proud of them. Ms. Barton is obviously a courageous and moral person who shared her experience,on Facebook which I hear has some pretty nasty things posted about Jews which is sad.
Thank you,
Chvi
(6) Randy Snow, July 21, 2019 9:48 PM
99 1 = 100?
I admire and respect the substance and intent of this article. However, I have never seen a bus that can hold 99 people and the driver. Is this factual?
Yoni, July 21, 2019 10:12 PM
Anne-Marie was driving one of three buses that transported 99 campers. Although the article was not specific on this, Anne-Marie did mention this on the video that she posted which has been widely shared via WhatsApp.
Branda, July 21, 2019 10:52 PM
A Really ,Really, NIICE story, for. A RARE change.
Why not just Enjoy the story, and not. Do Gemora on it.
Yisroel, July 22, 2019 3:36 PM
If you have a question it would be good to read the rest of the article carefully
Several comments were made questioning how 99 teenagers could be on one bus.
The bus driver clearly said that she made FOUR TRIPS. So we could assume nothing about the amount of children on each trip. She may have taken 33 kids on each trip. Or she could have taken 49 and 50 on two trips and repeated with the same children twice. If someone is concerned about the 48 limit, maybe 3 children didn’t come on the way to camp and back but came to the trip destination. (Replacing 3 others who went with another bus).
She did say that all of the boys thanked her and added comments several times. Clearly there were several trips.
Now that we were able to judge favorably, let’s enjoy the kiddush HaShem!
(5) Nancy, July 21, 2019 6:49 PM
We can’t change everyone’s views.....
But we have to start SOMEWHERE.
(4) former school bus driver, July 21, 2019 4:23 PM
Does anyone else see a problem with having 99 teenagers on a bus with a maximum capacity of 72, and 48 for teenagers? http://www.experts123.com/q/what-is-the-seating-capacity-on-a-school-bus.html
Yoni, July 21, 2019 4:46 PM
Her bus was one of three buses.
former school bus, July 21, 2019 9:15 PM
A question. Actually, 2. Where does it say in the article that there were 3 buses? Since when has a woman been allowed to drive a busload of teenage boys? When I drove, we sent a woman driver and the boys were not allowed to board the bus and the Rabbi at the camp called my employer and was quite angry that we would have a woman driver come to pick up the boys.
Rachel, July 21, 2019 10:01 PM
Gender discrimination is illegal
A company cannot be required to send a male employee, just as it cannot be required to send someone of a particular race or religion.
former school bus, July 22, 2019 12:31 AM
While I agree with your post, when I drove bus in Monroe-Woodbury, female drivers were not allowed to drive the boys, nor could a male driver be allowed to drive girls. It went to court and it was decided in court that, because of religious beliefs that the bus driver had to be the same sex as the children.
https://www.nytimes.com/1986/10/20/nyregion/for-hasidic-village-uneasy-times.html
Meir Friedman, July 22, 2019 2:13 AM
But isn't that article from 1986? Things change
I only get 2 or 3 free NYT articles a month, so I didnt' read your article, former school bus, but the URL includes 1986. If that's the year, there's been a lot of water under the bridge in 35 years. So I think it's more likely that a woman drove such a bus than that she made up the whole story. (Despite the increased and enormous amount of lying that goes on in the public arena these days.)
Anonymous, July 22, 2019 2:37 AM
What I found interesting is that the only take away that someone had after reading this heartwarming article is to question the technicalities of the busing. Makes me wonder...
former school bus, July 22, 2019 2:38 AM
I retired 2 years ago, the company I worked for does not allow bus drivers of the opposite sex to drive Orthodox children, as stipulated by court order. A great deal of time and money was spent fighting it, and we lost several very good employees because of the judge's decision, but it is what it is.
Yoni, July 21, 2019 10:09 PM
Nope, it was actually three buses. Although the article doesn’t specify that point (probably because it was intended to convey what happened, not addressing people who’s goal is to nitpick looking for an issue), Anne-Marie actually DID specify that she was driving one of three buses in the video she posted which was widely shared via WhatsApp.
In regards to a woman driving the boys, I personally attended yeshiva for 12 years using buses where the vast majority of drivers where women. So please don’t use your isolated incident to paint a false picture of what goes on in Yeshivas. The truth is , there is no better behaved teenagers than those found in the Yeshivas.
(3) David Levine, July 21, 2019 2:54 PM
Sullivan Summers
I was a summer resident in Sullivan County until 2014 and heard a lot of crude remarks by the "locals" there about both Hasidic Jews and Jews in general. I hope Ms. Barton's article and tweet gets around.
(2) Anonymous, July 21, 2019 1:09 PM
This experience is exactly why no one should be judged.
(1) Yoni, July 21, 2019 12:33 PM
Yeshiva Boys
As anyone who has grown up in the orthodox community can attest to, this is common practice all the time. The fact that this article is even considered newsworthy is a sad commentary on how effective these vicious online campaigns to demonize and delegitimize the orthodox Jewish community have been. But this is nothing new, we’ve been falsely accused of all sorts of terrible things in the past two thousand years. With Hashems help we will continue to grow and thrive despite the wishes of those who hate us until the ultimate and final redemption.