Multiple Wake special needs children unable to be transported to school after safety assistants join protest
The Wake County school bus driver protest on Friday affected families and students all across the district, including the most vulnerable: children with special needs.
One safety assistant, who asked not be identified by WRAL News, said about 15 out of 150 safety assistants in the Wake County Public School System showed up to work on Friday.
Without safety assistants, drivers are not allowed to transport children with special needs.
She said that, because of the lack of safety assistants, many school bus drivers were left with no choice but to call parents and let them know their children would not be picked up or dropped off.
"It's nothing against the children or the parents. I get to know my children and my parents every year,” she said. “This is with Wake County. We are just as important as the teachers and the principals and the superintendent because, without us, the special needs children wouldn't get to school."
The safety assistant said she's worked for the district for seven years and is making $13.79 an hour.
"I make more than some of the people who have been there 12 and 13 years," she said.
"You can go a lot of places and make a lot more than $15 an hour, and a lot of folks in Wake County schools and other school districts aren't even making close to $15 an hour," said Rachel Wells, with the labor union Teamsters.
Wells said she and Teamsters is lobbying to get more money for bus drivers and safety assistants.
"They want attention from lawmakers that, this is really a crisis and they're not being respected by the pay they're receiving," said Wells.
She said that dozens of safety assistants are asking for better pay so they can provide for their families.
"Better pay, a better workplace, a better building for us to work in, and maybe, this time, management will listen to us, because they didn't really think that we were going to do this," said the safety assistant.
Shakema McLean said her son has autism and developmental delays. McLean said her son typically has a safety assistant on the vehicle that takes him to school, but his driver called out Friday with a change in plans.
"She called me and was like, 'I'm so sorry, Ms. McLean. I'm not going to be able to bring him home because we don't have any assistants,'" recalled McLean.
Aside from pay concerns, the safety assistant said the building she works in is old, and sometimes the toilets don't flush.
"It's been a mess there the last two to three years," she said.
She added that she often has to do double the routes because of the employee shortage right now.
"I just hope, [after] what we did today, the Wake County Public School System listens to what we have to say and does some things. We just want a raise, and we want to be appreciated -- we are never appreciated," said the safety assistant.
The safety assistant said she does not know how much longer she and other safety assistants will continue to stay home, but she said she would be comfortable with $15 or $16 an hour.
"We had to stand up for ourselves because no one else in that office is going to stand up for us if we don't fight for ourselves," she said.
