Parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, aunts and uncles all overWake County got the call from school Monday afternoon. They learned thattheir loved ones were stuck at school.
Monday's bus driver sick-out was aimed at the Wake County School System,but it may have hit parents and kids the hardest. Hundreds of kids werestranded for a couple of hours after school. By late afternoon, most ofthe kids had found a ride home, but some were still waiting for a lift.
On Tuesday morning, no Wake County drivers called in sick and busesrolled on time, school officials said, one day after scrapping a new payplan to attract new drivers, a plan that backfired for all practical purposes.
On Monday at Powell Elementary, office workers spent much of the afternoonon the phone, trying to locate rides for the stranded children. Ken Coyner'sgrandchild was one of the kids that had to be picked up. He said that thesick-out is a bad lesson for the kids.
At Enloe High School, there more kids and more problems. The few busdrivers who did show up had to pull double or triple shifts as administratorsscurried to get the kids home. More than 80 drivers called in sick Mondayafternoon.
Enloe student Sunil Nagaraj was one of the hundreds of people left waitingfor rides. He hopes that Wake County's schoolbus crisis is quickly resolved.
Kids at Carnage Middle School were stuck, as well. Tim Pulse had tocome and pick up his daughter. The Pulse family lives in Holly Springs-- a long haul to his kid's south Raleigh school. He says that today'ssick-out was more than an inconvenience.
Some parents were in support of the bus drivers efforts. Still, manyupset parents spent Monday evening waiting for news on what Tuesday morningwould bring.
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