12. MS - Melton pulls over buses to get a hug

May 4, 2006

Jackson Clarion-Ledger

By Cathy Hayden chayden@clarionledger.com

Jackson Mayor Frank Melton said he impulsively asked his police escort to pull four Callaway High buses over on I-220 on Friday afternoon because he needed a hug.

The buses were taking students home from school, about 4:30 p.m.

"It's been such a stressful two weeks," Melton said. "I wanted to shake their hands. I wanted to touch them. That's all it was. ... I went through the buses and shook their hand and hugged them and told then how proud I was of them."

Melton said students saw him out their windows and waved before he had the buses stopped. "I told the kids to have a great weekend and a safe weekend," he said. "I didn't do anything stupid or illegal."

He said there was no safety hazard. The drivers pulled the buses off the interstate on the right median.

Jackson school officials learned about Melton's actions from a television video clip and called his office to see if there was a problem on any of the buses.

Superintendent Earl Watkins was out of town.

"It is certainly unorthodox," Watkins said Wednesday. "Unless there is an issue occurring on a bus, it is always better not to prevent bus drivers from transporting their kids."

Watkins said something like this opens up "unintended problems and consequences."

"We don't want to get into a negative conversation with the mayor," said Michael Thomas, deputy superintendent for operations. "Our concern was purely perception - people thinking buses had done anything wrong."

Melton has long been known to interact with students, going into schools unannounced when he was director of the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics and touring schools when he was a member of the state Board of Education.

"I reserve the right to go into our schools. I reserve the right to encourage kids. I reserve the right as the mayor," he said.