Georgia farmer stops a school bus and demands to know which kid flipped off his wife

A Georgia farmer has been arrested after he stopped a school bus full of children and demanded to know which one flipped the bird at his wife and daughter.

Roger O’Neal Barrett, 55, turned himself in after a video went viral showing him standing outside his truck, which was parked at the intersection of Stewart Road and Smith Chapel Road in Catoosa County, preventing a school bus from turning onto the street Monday afternoon.

The video shows him arguing with parents of children onboard the school bus from Ringgold Middle and High School, as he said he simply wanted to know the name and address of the child who ‘flipped off’ his wife and daughter as they were moving cattle.

Witnesses said the standoff lasted for about half an hour before Barrett fled the scene.

He is now charged with interfering with the operation of a public school, and was released on a $1,000 bond.

Video posted online showed that he parted his truck at the intersection of Stewart Road and Smith Chapel Road in Catoosa County, preventing a school bus from turning onto the street Monday afternoon

Video of the altercation shows Barrett arguing with parents who rushed to the scene when their children texted them about the standoff Monday afternoon.

He tells one of the mothers in the video he just wanted to talk to the school bus driver, to which the unidentified woman says, ‘Good, because my two kids are on this bus, and the way society is today, you don’t do that.’

But Barrett continues to insist he was in the right, saying: ‘What [the student] done to my daughter and my wife was wrong.’

The video was posted online by Scarlett Grace Rutherford, a mother of one of the students on the bus

At that point, the mother tells him he should have handled the situation ‘like a grown adult,’ noting that it is ‘100 percent unsafe’ to block the school bus.’

‘All I want to know is his name and where he lives,’ Barrett insists of the student who apparently made the obscene gesture.

The mother then tries to tell him that the bus driver cannot talk to him about the students, as she and other mothers yell that their children are just ‘waiting to get home.’

To that, Barrett responds: ‘You will wait just a second.’

The video was posted to Facebook by Scarlett Grace Rutherford, the mother of one of the students on the bus, who wrote: ‘This man blocked my kid’s bus today (about 20+ students were still on the bus) and would not move “until he got the name and address of the kid who flipped off his wife.

‘You better believe me and a bunch of other parents showed up to get their kids safely off the bus, properly equipped for this type of psycho,’ she continued, adding: ‘You don’t hold a bus of kids hostage because your feelings got hurt by a minor.’

In the video, Barrett demands to know the name and address of a student he said flipped off his wife and daughter

Barrett got into a verbal altercation with parents who rushed to the scene, but fled before authorities arrived

Catoosa County Sheriff’s officials said in a news release that Barrett had called the office for help moving cattle across the street prior to the altercation.

‘While deputies were on the way, there was a heated verbal argument between Barrett and parents arriving on the scene,’ they said. But when deputies arrived on the scene, Barrett had fled.

The children, though, were left ‘scared to death,’ the mother of another child on the bus, April Baker, told KFDM. 

In a statement, Catoosa County Schools said the bus driver followed protocol and contacted the Director of Transportation on radio, who in turn called 911.

It noted that Barrett never entered the bus, and Superintendent Chance Nix said he appreciates ‘the quick response from our bus driver, director of transportation and the sheriff’s office.

‘I know this was a scary situation for our students and parents,’ he concluded.