HOUSTON (KTRK) — Houston ISD bus drivers came together to support a coworker and to protest a move by the school district. On December 16, a 12-year-old girl was struck by a car as she walked home from school in north Harris County. She would later die from her injuries. She was the daughter of an HISD bus driver, whose coworkers rallied around her.
Bus driver Cynthia Cormier said, “From a parent’s point of view and from a grandparent’s, prayer is the answer.”
<br.As news of the tragedy spread among the community of HISD school bus drivers, they spontaneously prayed for one of their own who was grieving. They joined not holding hands, but by using a back channel on the bus radio system. Wretha Thomas, with the Educational Support Union, said, "Somebody else heard it and called in and reported it to the administration and they chose to write them up." At least five drivers had disciplinary letters laced in their personnel files. They were told the use of school equipment for private purposes is a violation of policy.