Editor: I am a taxpayer with three homes in Bryan County and I also have driven a school bus for the last 16 years in Richmond Hill, so I have the right to alert all parents of the danger of riding a school bus with no air conditioning.

This week was horrible as the temperatures reached over 112 degrees inside my bus with all of the windows, doors and hatches up. When it storms with all the windows up it is like you can’t breathe. I showed the temperature to several teachers and some parents. Monday we were parked with lots of kids for over 30 minutes waiting to load primary school students, then when we got loaded we had no police officer directing traffic at Frances Meeks Way.

The kids were complaining and asking me to turn on the air conditioning, and I had to tell them we don’t have air conditioning on the buses. Frances Meeks Way is a death trap and we have complained about it, but I think it is over the transportation director’s head.

I wrote to Superintendent Brooksher two years ago and begged him to help us. I got no reply. I told him if they can spend $500,000 on dirt for a football field and a new track and spend millions to redo the board offices, they can air condition the buses.

He said himself recently that we would get five new buses a year to get you to vote for these new schools. We got four new buses and three of them went to Pembroke. I forgot to say I am also over-loaded with 75 kids in this heat and we do not need a pool for the high school. We need more new buses with air conditioning in them. School is about our children learning, not completely about sports and definitely not about getting a pool.

I am resigning as a bus driver as I am no longer proud to be an employee of Bryan County Schools.

Please put our children first.

Karen Yawn

Richmond Hill