Call it a case of political correctness gone awry.

For more than a decade, Rob Thompson has driven the Campus Connector bus at the University of Minnesota. He greeted everyone with a smile, and his habit of playing jazz CDs while he worked earned him the nickname “Jazz Man.” Students loved him — he even has four Facebook fan pages.

But when classes started this fall, Jazz Man was nowhere to be found. So what happened? 

Seems Thompson gave a female university staff member his phone number with an offer to “talk jazz.” And while that may be a euphemism to some, to Thompson, it wasn’t. The popular bus driver claims he regularly offers riders suggestions for where to see jazz in the area, and gives out his number to both men and women.

But Thompson’s employer, First Transit, has a policy that forbids personal contact between drivers and passengers. So when the woman in question made a fuss,  Thompson’s superiors put him on a different route — and put the kibosh on any smooth jazz soundtrack during rides.

Cameron Boster, a U of M junior, thinks Thompson’s accuser couldn’t have known him very well. “It must have been somebody who [didn't have the understanding that] he was a really friendly bus driver,” he said.

In the meantime, students have taken to the Jazz Man is the Man Facebook page to discuss how to get Thompson reinstated to his old route. One poster pledges, “We will get you back, Rob! There are 40,000 students that want you back.”

Watch a news report on the “Jazz Man” bus driver below.

[via Gawker]

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