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Stan McNeil, a campus driver whose bus preaching has been the subject of numerous student videos and social media posts, said he was pressured to resign after his bosses learned he placed his hand on a female student in a wheelchair in an attempt to ask God to heal her.

(YouTube/RootOfAllGood)

NEW BRUNSWICK —Bus company officials say a popular Rutgers University driver — known for his inspirational speeches to students from behind the wheel — lost his job for violating safety rules.

But the driver, Stan McNeil, says he was actually fired over a simple prayer for a disabled student in a case that has many on campus rallying for his reinstatement.

McNeil, whose bus preaching has been the subject of numerous student videos and social media posts, said he was pressured to resign after his bosses learned he had placed his hand on a woman a wheelchair in an attempt to ask God to heal her.

"I prayed for the lady, I put my hand on her and I prayed," McNeil, a Christian, said in a YouTube video posted earlier this week explaining his dismissal. "They said we don’t need your services anymore. They said we don’t do that here."

McNeil, said he made the nearly-nine-minute video in response to a story in the Daily Targum, the campus newspaper, in which his supervisor and a campus official said he resigned for personal reasons and was not fired.

It is unclear if the disabled student or someone else complained to campus officials about McNeil’s prayer.

A Rutgers spokesman referred calls about McNeil’s departure to First Transit, an Ohio contractor that oversees the campus bus service.

In a statement, First Transit spokeswoman Stephenie Creech said the company appreciated McNeil’s rapport with students and respected his religious beliefs.

"This case is about safety, which is a core value of First Transit. All of our vehicle operators are instructed, ‘If it can’t be done safely, don’t do it,’" Creech said."Unfortunately, a full internal review revealed that Mr. McNeil had failed to follow a critical safety protocol that was cause for immediate termination. When advised of his violation, Mr. McNeil chose to resign."

Creech did not discuss the safety violation.

MCNEIL SPEAKS OUT

However, McNeil, in an interview tonight, said bus company personnel told him that video recorded on the bus shows he did not use the required number of straps to properly secure the disabled student’s wheelchair.

Further, McNeil said, he was asked to resign for praying over the student. He acknowledged that his employer had warned him previously about similar actions.

"I just want to see people blessed," said McNeil, who wants to be a pastor. "That’s my life."

McNeil, a retired Newark firefighter, began driving a campus bus in 2011, according to a profile published in the Daily Targum last year. The married father of two said he had a strong faith in God and regularly shared his motivational speeches with students on the LX bus route traveling between Rutgers’ College Avenue campus in New Brunswick and the Livingston campus in Piscataway.

STUDENT OUTCRY

Students have taken to social media sites to call for McNeil to get his job back.

Students began to post videos of McNeil’s driver’s seat sermons on YouTube, Facebook and other sites. Last year, students started a Facebook fan page, titled "LX Bus Driver," calling McNeil "the most inspirational, supportive and reassuring person many of us have ever met." McNeil also has a Twitter page, @busdriverLX, with more than 2,500 followers.

In one YouTube video posted by a student last year, McNeil preached positivity for more than two minutes while driving and glancing in his bus’ rear-view mirror.

"You’re one thought away from greatness, people!," McNeil said as he steered the bus through the Livingston campus. "You got to continue to do well, do good, keep doing good, keep getting knowledge. And at the right time, that knowledge will explode and it will put you into greatness."

Some of the students calling for McNeil’s reinstatement said he did not push his religion on anyone.

In his YouTube video explaining why he left Rutgers, McNeil said he wanted to tell his bosses the woman in the wheelchair was not the first student he asked God to heal. He had prayed for other students with physical injuries in the past, he said.

"They got healed ... God healed them," McNeil said in the video, saying he will keep praying.

NO REGRETS

"I don’t regret none of it. I said this is who I am. I ain’t going to back down from who I am," McNeil said. "I will not compromise. I am all about God, brother."

Rutgers students are circulating McNeil’s video and spreading the word about his departure on social media sites. A petition posted on Change.org calling for McNeil’s reinstatement had more than 2,500 signatures by this afternoon.

Rutgers student Hannah Young said she e-mailed the university’s transportation department to say she was ashamed to go to a school where a man could lose his job over a prayer.

"You will never know how much Stan helped his students," Young said. "He was an inspiration, but he was also that one ray of sunshine that many students will never admit to desperately needing."

Star-Ledger staff writer Naomi Nix contributed to this report.

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