Sterling Heights police and Henry Ford II students turn 'Slim Shady' parody into school-bus safety push

On October 1, 2026, Sterling Heights police released "The Real Miss Daisy" — a school-bus-safety parody of Eminem's "The Real Slim Shady," with a title that puns on the 1989 film "Driving Miss Daisy." The video was made in town, not shipped in from a state agency: Henry Ford II High School's Theater and Advanced Studio Film students produced it alongside Sterling Heights police and Sterling Heights Television. The joke, for all its local energy, is built around one hard rule: drivers must stop for a school bus showing two alternately flashing red lights and an extended stop arm.

A cast your street knows

The people on screen are the people your neighbor knows. Lt. Aaron Susalla of the Sterling Heights Police Department wrote the parody lyrics and performs as the rapper. "We wanted to create something people would remember — something fun, local and attention-grabbing that still carries a critical message," Susalla said. Police Chief Andrew Satterfield spoke publicly about the campaign and its school partners, and the department thanked Henry Ford II principal Lori Singleton for supporting the production. Students Colton Park and Colten Hazlewood, interviewed about their work on camera and behind the scenes, are the faces of a much bigger local routine: Henry Ford II enrolls 1,663 students in grades 9–12, and Utica Community Schools runs 250 district-owned buses carrying roughly 21,000 students on a typical school day.

The video spread well past city hall — VICE, Fox 4 Dallas, San Francisco's KTVU, and Fox stations in Minneapolis, Houston, Philadelphia, and Phoenix all picked it up within days. Which makes the next question the one that matters: why did Sterling Heights police feel they needed a meme song on top of a law that already existed?

The numbers behind the joke

Because Michigan recorded 1,189 school-bus-involved crashes in 2025, including three fatal crashes and three fatalities. In 2024, the state counted 54 crashes at school-bus stops where the warning lights and stop arm were activated; 26 people were hurt and one person died in those collisions. In a single one-day statewide survey in May 2025, 3,153 Michigan school-bus drivers reported 2,207 instances of being illegally passed. Here in Sterling Heights, the problem is treated as routine, not rare: when a bus camera does not capture a violation, bus drivers can report it to police, who may issue a ticket.

A law that already existed

The state law predates the video by years. Under MCL 257.682, a driver approaching or passing a stopped school bus with two alternately flashing red lights must stop at least 20 feet from the bus and remain stopped until the red signals go off. Violating it is a civil infraction carrying a fine of $100 to $500, and a court may order up to 100 hours of community service at a school. If passing a stopped bus causes injury, the offense can be a misdemeanor carrying up to $1,000 and one year in jail; if it causes death, it can be a felony carrying up to $7,500 and 15 years in prison. In 2023, Michigan recorded 988 school-bus-related crashes, five of them fatal. And the state has kept layering new enforcement on top of the old law: Public Acts 161, 162, and 163 of 2024, effective April 2, 2025, let districts install stop-arm camera systems reviewed by law enforcement, and a bill introduced this month would double the maximum civil fine to $1,000 and require drivers to stop 50 feet from the bus instead of 20.

What the song leaves open

The open question is whether a memorable parody changes behavior that decades of flashing red lights and a statute have not. The reach is real; the effect on the driver who blows past a stop is unproven. What stands behind the song, though, is enforcement that does not depend on going viral: Sterling Heights police can ticket from bus-camera footage or a driver's report, and Michigan's Operation Safe Stop statewide enforcement event runs October 19–23 during National School Bus Safety Week.

"Keeping children safe on their way to and from school is a responsibility we all share," Satterfield said. Susalla put the charge more plainly: "A few extra seconds of patience behind the wheel can make all the difference for a child crossing the street or stepping off a school bus. We hope 'The Real Miss Daisy' video gives drivers a reason to pause, pay attention and always stop for the bus."

You are the driver passing a Utica Community Schools bus at a stop on your own street. The rule is concrete, local, and unchanged by the viral moment: stop for the flashing reds and the extended stop arm, stay alert through the school zone, and remember that the kids in this video are the kids waiting at the stop on your street. Whether the song changes anyone's foot on the brake is the question nobody can answer yet — and the one your own daily drive answers, one bus stop at a time.