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A Salt Lake City school bus driver who took students on an impromptu detour Tuesday to witness what's been dubbed a "peaceful uprising" has been fired.

Ryan Pleune, an on-call bus driver for Salt Lake City School District, shuttled fifth-graders from Bonneville Elementary, 1145 S. 1900 East, to a performance of "A Tale of Two Cities" at Hale Centre Theatre in West Valley City. On the way back to school, he veered off 600 South to stop outside the Frank Moss Federal Courthouse, 350 S. Main St., in downtown Salt Lake City, where demonstrators have been gathering this week to show solidarity for Tim DeChristopher, an environmental activist on trial for placing bogus bids on oil and gas leases.

Pleune, a former East High science teacher, saw connections between the DeChristopher trial and rally and the fifth-graders' study of the American and French revolutions, he said.

"It started to occur to me that there is this kind of democracy in action going on in our city. It is national news," Pleune said. "Why not share that with the kids rather than let them just read it in their text books and think it is in the past?"

Pleune, 33, did not have permission for the stop, although he did call ahead to a supervisor and say he would be making a detour without giving a location or purpose, said district spokesman Jason Olsen. Several parents complained about unauthorized stop.

Tuesday was the first — and last — time that Pleune drove a route for the district, Olsen said. During the detour, the 50 or so students and teachers stayed on the bus, but Pleune got off.

"He actually got out of the bus and was taking part in the demonstration," Olsen said. "His actions were not approved by nor condoned by either the school or the district — and [his actions] were not appropriate. He was told to get the students from the play back to the school."

Pleune said he did not join in the demonstration. He asked the students to roll down their windows, and he got off the bus to ask demonstrators to sing. He was told he was fired for violating protocol by exiting the bus with kids on board.

Pleune and his wife, Jamie, were part of Monday's "peaceful uprising" in support of DeChristopher and have been involved in planning this and other rallies to bring attention to climate change. Last year, they walked 350 miles throughout Utah to push for limiting the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to 350 parts per million.

"I don't know what the school district rules are," Jamie Pleune said. "[But] if we are finding ourselves in a situation where we're so limited in what we can expose our students to, or we can't ever do anything spontaneous or creative in terms of teaching, maybe that's a problem."

Denece Vincent, PTA co-president of Bonneville Elementary, said most parents she has heard from about the bus incident have felt it was "no big deal." But they understand the need to enforce district policies when it comes to transporting students.

"It's kind of tough," she said. "You do have to set rules, and people need to know there are consequences."

Logan Froerer, a spokesman for the DeChristopher rallies, said he felt Pleune was "very professional" during the visit.

"We thought it was beautiful that he brought these students out to really see citizens taking direct action in the political process and showing their beliefs in a totally nonviolent and peaceful way," Froerer said.