SARASOTA, Fla. -- "Black fu---ng ni---r!" These shocking and hurtful words were all caught on cellphone video. The speaker, former school bus driver Pamela Michener, didn't stop there.
"Let me tell you something, you fat fu---ing ni---r: Maybe if you disciplined your fu---ng ni---r, stinky-ass black children, I wouldn't have to put my two cents in," Michener is heard shouting on the video.
For 10 years Michener had been working with the Sarasota school district as a bus driver before resigning this May.
Neighbors say that after witnessing this outburst, along with several other rants from her, they knew something had to be done. That's when they turned to social media.
"I posted the video and I wanted everyone to see this is who is working with our kids,” says Mya Ronk, Michener's neighbor. “Everyone was outraged."
Ronk says the Facebook and YouTube posts quickly gained traction, and the community has since been voicing its concern to the school district.
"You have these kids, how could you work with kids when you don’t like a certain type of people?" Ronk asks.
So ABC 7 did some digging -- our first stop being Michener's home. After knocking on her door, I asked Michener about the neighbor’s accusations that she is a racist and told her I wanted to get her side of the story.
“First of all, I’m not a racist … it’s just the opposite,” Michener said, before saying “Thank you for your time” and slamming the front door. I asked through the closed door about Michener’s use of the N word. “Well, what do you expect?” She answered. “My life is threatened, ok? I have people attacking me all the time. What do you expect?”
We referred back to the video, and noted that the only violent comment made during the altercation ("I'll slit your fu---ng throat") came from Michener.
This isn’t the first time Michener has been accused of questionable conduct. A police report from 2012 shows that Michener was charged with battery on a person 65 or older, and there was also an incident for which she was charged with faking an attack.
"This is who our kids are around,” says Ronk. “We don’t want our kids feeling unsafe, like my sister afterwards, she didn't even want to leave my mother in the house by herself."
