MAGA hat-wearing school bus driver chooses principles over job after 'absurd' student complaint

Dave Bonhoff is a retired police officer from Baltimore County, Pennsylvania — and until recently also was a bus driver serving the Littlestown Area School District, WHP-TV reported.

You see, Bonhoff was in the practice of donning his well-worn Make America Great Again hat while driving his route in Littlestown — a small borough just a mile or so north of the Maryland border.

'I want to be able to express myself. I don't want somebody to tell me, ''Well, my feelings are hurt. You got to take the hat off.'''

But one of his students complained about Bonhoff's MAGA hat, the station said, after which his boss at Krise Transportation called him on the morning of Feb. 18.

"She contacts me and says, 'Hey, listen, I'm going to buy you a hat, an American flag hat, because the school district has deemed that they don't want you to wear that Make America Great Again hat,'" Bonhoff recounted to WHP.

Well, Bonhoff — also known as "Mr. Dave from Bus #73" — decided to walk away from his bus driver gig that very day, just before the afternoon drop-off, the station said.

"If that wasn't a condition of my employment, I'd be back to work tomorrow," Bonhoff told WHP. "I miss the kids. Those kids and I had a great relationship."

He added to the station that "there's nothing in this hat that says anything about partisanship. I think that saying that this hat is political is absurd. It's patriotic."

When a WHP reporter asked Bonhoff how he would respond to those who argue that MAGA hats are synonymous with a political figure — President Donald Trump — Bonhoff replied that they're off base.

"I would say that making America great is what we should all strive to be," he noted to the station. "Anybody who doesn't want America to prosper, I take issue with them."

Bonhoff added to WHP that Republican and Democrat presidents during their time in office — including Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton — have used the phrase Make America Great Again.

Alas, clear explanations from higher-ups regarding exactly who said what to Bonhoff appear to be in short supply.

Al Moyer, the Littlestown Area School District's acting superintendent, told WHP that "districts need to be neutral on sensitive issues" and that Krise Transportation employed Bonhoff, not the school district.

As for Krise Transportation, it denied giving Bonhoff any ultimatums about his MAGA hat but noted a dress code policy in a section of the company handbook, the station said: “Any item of apparel with text or graphics deemed inappropriate by management (including but not limited to alcoholic beverages, drugs, tobacco/vaping, suggestive sexual images or remarks, political sentiments, or offensive statements) are prohibited.”

Bonhoff remained resolute, telling WHP that "I want to be able to express myself. I don't want somebody to tell me, 'Well, my feelings are hurt. You got to take the hat off.'"

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Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano (R) addressed Bonhoff's MAGA hat controversy in a statement Friday, noting that political correctness has become a "tool of intimidation," the station said in a follow-up story:

Mr. Bonhoff is a retired police officer who continued serving his community by safely transporting children to school. Yet he was effectively forced out of his job because he wore a hat that read "Make America Great Again." Whether someone agrees with that message is completely irrelevant. In America, citizens do not lose their First Amendment rights simply because someone else claims to be offended.

What happened here is not about "sensitivity" or "respect." It is about the suffocating culture of political correctness that is spreading through our institutions — a culture that demands conformity, punishes dissent, and attempts to silence anyone who refuses to bow to its ideology. Political correctness has become a tool of intimidation. It is used to shame, threaten, and drive ordinary Americans out of their jobs and public life simply for expressing views that do not align with the approved narrative. That is not tolerance. That is coercion.

Mastriano added to WHP that Bonhoff was brave in holding fast to his beliefs: “Dave Bonhoff showed more courage in standing by his principles than many institutions have shown in defending the rights they claim to value. No American should ever be forced to choose between their livelihood and their constitutional freedoms."

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