Dallas ISD Employees Receive Rapid COVID-19 Tests After School Bus Drivers Threatened to Walk Off Job – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

School bus drivers threatened to walk off the job Thursday after COVID-19 cases grew at the Pat Rainey bus lot which services parts of Dallas, and Lancaster ISD.   

Drivers got upset when they arrived at the lot and found support staff missing.

“They were all in quarantine. We were in contact with the very same people they were in contact with,” said Anthony Peterson, a bus driver.

A positive COVID-19 case inside the building led to contact tracing and office workers were sent home. But bus drivers were told they were safe even though they weren’t buying it, things got heated, cellphones came out, and the drivers threatened not to pick up students this afternoon.

“We have workers here who have it, you ain’t got to say their name but you can let us know we have cases,” said Janet Henderson, a bus driver.

Despite insisting the drivers weren’t at risk, school leaders set up a rapid COVID-19 testing site at the bus lot, for drivers to get swabbed and results in just 15 minutes. Many drivers were comforted with that, but others say it’s not enough, citing examples where they were failed to be notified that kids on their buses were quarantined.

“We were shocked. Our leaders abandoned us this morning without any info and told your drivers nothing,” said Peterson.

Still the buses rolled and came back on time.

Dallas ISD said students weren’t at-risk of not being picked up due to so many kids learning virtually and a healthy amount of backup drivers.

*Map locations are approximate, central locations for the city and are not meant to indicate where actual infected people live.

**County totals below include all 32 North Texas counties, not just Collin, Dallas, Denton and Tarrant.