BALTIMORE COUNTY, Md. — Baltimore County parents are speaking out after they were forced to find rides home for their kids again this week when the bus routes were compromised.
This comes after the school districts organizers warned that bus drivers could be calling out protesting again.
RELATED: Baltimore County Public Schools warn parents of potential bus driver call out
Last Friday Tamara Kravitz said her daughters school bus never showed up to bring her home from school and today she got a phone call stating the same thing was happening at her son’s middle school.
“Yeah, so if I couldn’t give him a ride its very dangerous for him to walk home because there’s not a lot of sidewalks,” Kravitz said.
BCPS has about 650 routes that are covered solely by their drivers. Last Friday, they had 89 drivers call out sick and today they had 77 drivers call out.
Kravitz said this is the second school day in a row where one of her kids didn’t have a ride home on their normal school bus because the route was canceled. Now she and her family are wondering if finding rides at the last minute will be their new normal.
“It’s very stressful it’s another stress it’s another worry, and I think the school are doing the best they can and the bus drivers they just need help. Like everybody just needs help and they need to just make it work because in the end the kids are suffering, they’re missing school in the morning when the buses don’t come,” Kravitz said.
This bus cancellations obviously impacted hundreds of students and families throughout the county. Kravitz said her 12-year-old daughter was so concerned she created a petition called “Get more bus drivers for Baltimore County Public Schools”.
“She was like mommy I talked to our bus drivers I was very upset about what they said, they need help, they need our support and she started a petition. She wants to help she likes to advocate so she wants to help the bus drivers,” Kravitz said.
So far, she has about 25 out of the 100 signatures she’s asking for on the petition. Click here to sign the petition.
April Armstrong-Carter is another concerned parent whose grandchildren attend Franklin Middle School. She said she hopes the bus drivers get whatever they are asking for so things can finally get back to normal.
“Give those drivers some coverage some money, make it right for them. They work hard not just to drive our children but to oversee them while they’re on their buses, please,” Armstrong-Carter said.
Right now, there are 138 vacant bus driver positions that need to be filled. And parents are hoping they get filled soon.
