York Region school bus drivers remain anxious about COVID-19

#backtoschool: 'We take the chance and trust in the Lord we don't get contaminated'

Yorkregion.com
Sept. 18, 2020
Kim Zarzour

They’re back on the roads, loving the kids, hating the situation.

That’s the word from York Region bus drivers after their first week on the job in a pandemic.

It isn’t fun, it isn’t comfortable, but it is now life as we know it.

With 53,000 students, more than 300 schools covering more than 90,000 kilometres daily, drivers with Student Transportation Services of York Region hit the ground running this time of year.

But this September, many hit the ground fearful, too.

A good number of those drivers are getting on in years, chauffeuring kids in their retirement, worried about catching COVID-19.

We checked back on a few of those drivers to see how they were doing, one week in. For some, the fear felt justified; for others, the jury remains out.

Joseph Akam has come to the conclusion that, driving a small bus, it’s impossible to keep everyone six feet apart.

“Mr. Joe” to his pint-sized passengers, the Richmond Hill resident is 72 and decided to keep driving this year despite his doctor’s advice.

Akam drives a Dodge Caravan filled with special needs kids. One of the passengers sits right behind him and that makes him nervous.

He knows of drivers who are quitting because of the lack of separation.

But not him.

“I like kids. And,” he adds with a laugh, “I get bored at home.”

So he cracks open his two front windows, slides open the one in back for ventilation and keeps his mask on.

“We take the chance and trust in the Lord and hope we don’t get contaminated. We have to do what we can to help the situation. I don’t like it, but what can you do?“

Janice Codeluppi also drives a small van, but the kids on her bus are all special needs and don’t all wear masks.

It worries her when she sees parents bringing their kids to the pickup point unmasked and if students are wearing masks, they rip them off as soon as they board.

“The hard thing is, I’m so fond of them. I’ve grown attached. But at the same time, I’ve got to go to the nursing home to see my mom.”

The start of the school year is always a little confusing, but this year it’s crazy complicated, she says.

“I drove to Highway 27 to someone’s house yesterday, then realized he’s not going to school that day,” she says describing the convoluted cohort divisions and last-minute changes being radioed in each day.

And there are issues you don’t think about, like washroom breaks -- impossible when COVID-19 restrictions forbid you from entering schools and the only alternative is using the local Timmie’s washroom.

Codeluppi works for Stock Transportation and she’s happy with the supplies they gave her -- garbage bags for PPE disposal, bottles of disinfectants, towelettes for wiping down the seats (“although I’m not sure how you wipe down cloth”), gloves for cleaning and a box of masks.

Other drivers have told her they only received five days worth of masks.

She is using her own face shield as well, although she isn’t allowed to wear it while driving.

“To be truthful I see a lot driving with them on, but that’s just out of fear -- maybe thinking it’s better to ask forgiveness not permission.”

“All of us love love love our jobs,” adds Anne, who did not want her full name used for fear of jeopardizing her job. “It’s addicting. We’re not lazy people. All of us chose to do this job and continue to do it for the love of our students.”

But the company Anne works for uses Google Mapping routes as a way to time and pay drivers. In a pandemic, that causes problems.

“I have had changes to my route, additions and subtractions. None of us knows what we’re making.”

And already one of the student on her bus is sick. She hopes she’ll find out, in a timely way, if it’s COVID-19.

“Between not knowing what’s going on with students that are sick and not knowing what I’m earning, I’m a little pissed off.”

Another driver, an East Gwillimbury resident unnamed for fear of losing his job, said his company gave him spray sanitizer to use after morning and afternoon runs but not enough time to clean between each of his three school runs.

COVID-19 protocols for drivers are directed by the bus company by which they are employed. These bus companies work under contracts to School Transportation Services (STS), a collaborative venture of the York Catholic and York Region District School Boards.

Spokespersons for both boards said that in order to allow drivers more time to conduct a thorough cleaning within the guidance of York Region Public Health, STS adjusted its schedules.