Bus Driver Wears a Tuxedo on First Day of School, Says He’ll ‘Have to Do It Every Year Now’ (Exclusive)

One bus driver wanted to make a good first impression on the first day of school.

Lucas Champion, a bus driver for the Fairfax County Public School District in Virginia, wore a black tuxedo to take his students to school for the first day of classes on Monday, Aug. 18.

Champion, 33, exclusively tells PEOPLE that the decision to rewear his groomsman tuxedo from 2016 was a spontaneous choice. The bus driver, who started working for the district in April, reveals he was a student in the district, and one of his former teachers took his now-viral photo.

He explains that the night before, his family came over, and they were listening to music. His niece’s face lit up as they listened together. When his “tuxedo song” – ZZ Top’s “Sharp Dressed Man – came on, he came up with the idea. He says he’ll listen to the 1983 hit whenever he’s getting ready for a “fancy” event. “It’s just like a little ritual I do.”

“So that came on and then it just sparked in my head, ‘Oh, tomorrow’s the first day of school. I’m gonna do this,’ ” he says. Champion then went to search for his tucked-away tuxedo.

Champion confesses he didn’t check with the school if he could wear a tuxedo, but he confirms that the district expects faculty to “look presentable,” but maybe not quite this dressed up. He explains that the bus drivers wear work gloves to handle the oil, grease, cooling and engine fluids.

“That was actually heavy on my mind when I was getting ready to do this. I was like, ‘Oh man, I hope I don’t get, if I don’t get oil or cooling [fluid] on my tuxedo. I better bring my gloves,’ ” he tells PEOPLE with a laugh. “So it was like a very big juxtaposition.”

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Champion says students, their parents and faculty all delighted in his surprise outfit choice. “There were a lot of smiles. A lot of expressions of joy,” he says, sharing he saw a lot of “faces light up [and] smiles of bewilderment.”

He confesses that the students didn’t offer as much of a reaction in the morning, which he attributes to transitioning out of summer mode. “I think some of ’em may have maybe like glanced it and wondered and thought they might’ve just been seeing things or whatever,” he says. 

“So I didn’t get a whole lot of response in the morning, but in the afternoon, I definitely got a lot of response from the kids. Several were saying, ‘Hey, I love the fit.’ ‘Looking sharp, sir.’ ‘Nice suit.’ ‘Why are you wearing that?’ ”

Meanwhile, administrators gave him a bigger reaction from the start, with many asking if he was going to a wedding or an interview. 

Despite the sweet comments, he admits that wearing a tuxedo during a Virginia summer was a bit difficult. “I was dripping. I had a rag behind me that I was just constantly wiping my head, wiping my brow, all that,” he says. “But, we gotta suffer for our art.”

As for what’s next, he hints that he may turn this into an annual tradition. “I think it went over really well. People enjoyed it, [and] it helped kind of ease the stress of the first day for some people,” he says. “Why not? I mean, it’s a simple thing.” 

“It makes people smile,” he says. “I think what the world needs is more people smiling and feeling, just happy.”

“So I guess I kind of have to do it every year now,” he adds while laughing. “And hopefully I don’t gain too much weight and I size out of it. Then I don’t have to go get a new one.”