John Washington III Asks Whether Retired School Buses Are Being Used to Trap Drivers — and Promises Federal Investigations
John Washington III is raising what he calls serious concerns about reports that old, inactive school buses — vehicles no longer carrying children — are being put on the road with their stop signs activated so drivers who pass them can be ticketed. Protecting children is the law's purpose, he wrote; manufacturing citations for revenue would be something else, and as president he says he would push for federal investigations.
John Washington III put a question to the country on Monday night, and it was not really about school buses. In a statement headed 'School Bus Safety or Government Entrapment?', the 2028 presidential candidate wrote that 'school bus laws were created to protect our children, NOT to create another revenue stream for city and state governments,' and said he is raising serious concerns about reports and allegations involving old, inactive school buses allegedly being used to catch drivers passing when their stop signs are activated — buses, he wrote, that are allegedly no longer being used to transport children, yet are being operated in ways that result in traffic citations.
Washington was careful to draw his own line through the issue. He said he fully supports protecting children, and that any driver who illegally passes a school bus and endangers children should be held accountable. 'But there is a difference between protecting children and deliberately setting people up to receive traffic tickets,' he wrote. If city governments and police departments are deliberately approving such tactics simply to collect more money from hardworking Americans, he wrote, 'THAT IS A SERIOUS ABUSE OF GOVERNMENT AUTHORITY!' He named no specific city, agency or case; the concerns, as he framed them, rest on reports and allegations the public has raised.
His answer, if elected, is federal scrutiny. 'UNDER MY ADMINISTRATION, WE WILL NOT IGNORE THESE ALLEGATIONS!' he wrote, saying that as president he will push for federal investigations, where legally authorized, into cities, states and law enforcement agencies accused of deliberately manufacturing traffic violations for financial gain, and will pursue accountability through every lawful avenue available, including federal civil rights enforcement where violations of federal law are established. No city government, police department or state official, he wrote, should be above accountability: 'THE GOVERNMENT WORKS FOR THE PEOPLE. THE PEOPLE DO NOT EXIST TO FUND THE GOVERNMENT THROUGH DECEPTIVE ENFORCEMENT PRACTICES!' And where an inactive bus is used primarily to generate citations rather than protect children, he wrote, the public deserves to know who authorized it, why it was authorized, and whether those citations were lawful.
