TANGIPAHOA PARISH, La. — Before and after school, long lines of cars have been snaking around the parking lot next to Loranger Elementary and Middle School every day for more than a week.
It’s a situation that has repeated itself throughout the metro area: High gas prices and low wages have led school bus drivers to call in sick, while frustrated parents and caregivers have been forced to re-arrange their schedules to pick up their kids.
This week, Tangipahoa Parish was hit by a variety of bus driver absences. Rhonda Davis, whose daughter is a Loranger first-grader, has taken to social media to voice her concerns.
“There's no substitutes for the bus drivers,” Davis said. “Parents have to figure out what they're going to do, if they're going to take off work, leave work early.”
Davis said email alerts that a bus won’t be operating often come at the last minute.
“School lets out at 2:45, 2:50. So we'll get notice at 2:30. ‘Hey, such-and-such bus isn't running.’ So everyone's in a panic, everybody's freaking out,” she said.
Earlier this week, some Jefferson Parish school bus drivers called in sick. In St. Tammany, dozens of sick calls for more than a month led the St. Tammany School Board to offer drives a pay increase as well as an emergency stipend.
The drivers have complained they find themselves squeezed by rising gas prices, at times barely breaking even with traditionally low pay.
Michael Bryant, a Loranger grandfather pressed into action to pick up his granddaughter after kindergarten, said he has sympathy for the drivers and parents alike.
“It's hitting the drivers hard,” Bryant said. “Then it hits the parents hard when they have to miss work and drop the kids off and pick them up.”
Lesa Francois said she had to re-arrange her Friday schedule for five pickups at two different schools.
“It has been horrendous,” Francois said. “It's been really chaotic and you don't know from day-to-day if your bus is going to run. Yeah, it's been all over the place.”
The Tangipahoa School System has even taken to social media to offer training to anyone willing to get behind the wheel of a school bus and help out.
WWL-TV reached out to Tangipahoa School Superintendent Melissa Stilley for comment, but we have not heard back.
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