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Many questions left unanswered after Knox Co. Schools' alert delay

A bus driver shared her concerns after Knox County Schools sent an early dismissal message late to some parents on Tuesday.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn — On Tuesday, Knox County Schools sent a message about sudden school closures, but many parents shared with WBIR that the message came late. Some were left with minutes to get to schools by the time they closed.

We reached out to KCS with some questions, but Dr. John Rysewyck was not able to speak about them on Wednesday due to a full schedule from the delayed start and a school visit. The questions include the type of alert system used to send messages, what changed regarding the National Weather Services' reports, and why he call wasn't made sooner to close school.

Rachel Lasseter is a bus driver for Sims Bus Lines, which is contracted by Knox County Schools to transport students.

"My number one job is to get those kids to and from school safely," said Lasseter.

She said if the district had a delay or even canceled school on Tuesday, it would've been helpful.

"It just seemed extra dark and then rainy. And, you know, there were kids out, like, standing at bus stops and you could hardly even see them until you're right on top of them. And you couldn't tell if the standing water was just, you know, a little bit or, you know, how deep it really was. And so had we been on a two-hour delay yesterday, that would have been very helpful," she said. I would have felt a lot more comfortable driving a bus."

She said she had about 30 minutes' notice on Tuesday to pick up her elementary students, and she had to drive to get there on top of doing her daily bus inspection.

"I live 20 minutes away," said Lasseter. "And so it's at least a 20-minute drive. And then before our route, you have to do a pre-trip on your bus. So you have to go out and inspect the bus, you have to inspect the tires and the engine, you have to inspect everything on the bus. And that takes a little bit of time. A 30-minute notice just isn't enough, we had other drivers that had just taken their children, you know, to dance lessons. And they had to leave and weren't able to do that. We had others that had just put their children down for a nap."

She said her elementary route takes normally about an hour to complete, and she still had to pick up middle and high school students afterward.

"The elementary were released at 1 p.m., and then middle and high school were released at 1:30 p.m.," said Lasseter. "So it's a little hard to do an hour-long route in 30 minutes. So my route, my elementary route, is a longer route. And so it does take me usually the full, complete hour to do it. So I was very late getting to the middle and high school. And then I was very late getting those getting the kids home. And it just puts an extra level of stress."

She said her biggest concern is the safety of the students because driving a bus in inclement weather is not easy.

"Driving a bus, it's a lot harder than you think," said Lasseter. "The wind is not fun in a bus. I mean, it's like a billboard. And, you know, you're constantly having to counter-steer and hold on. And then you have, you know, however many kids behind you, you know, and you have a lot on your plate because you want them to get home safe. You care about these kids like they're your own, I don't want anything to happen to these kids."

She said the two-hour delay on Wednesday helped because the sun was out for her first route and she was able to see what was in the road.

"We were able to get up when we were and it was light outside," said Lasseter. "So you could see, you know, you can make sure there wasn't any standing water down, limbs or anything that you're going to run over. And it was really nice that they were you know, that they gave us that notice, and it's appreciated so much, and I hope moving forward in the future that, you know, we do have more of a notice like that because it was very helpful. And  it made things a lot better."

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