Ohio dad uses limo to shuttle kids to school amid bus driver shortage
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- An enterprising parent found a luxurious solution to the bus driver shortage, but the local school board is not happy he's using a limo to take the children to school.
Sean Rogers Jr. is rolling out the red carpet to get kids in central Ohio to school.
"Everybody is so shocked. Like, who is this guy pulling up in a limo or whatever? Then everyone wonders who was in the backseat," he said.
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Rogers decided it was time to pull out all the stops after his kids missed school on Friday when their bus didn't show up.
So, he borrowed a ride from his dad's limousine service and hit the road.
"You know, everybody always wants to say, 'Oh, let's, let's help the community. Let's stop this violence,' and all this type of stuff. Well, I feel like a big step of stopping the violence is part of getting kids to school instead of letting them skip school and go out here and get into trouble," Rogers said.
On Monday, he took 25 kids to school, then on Tuesday, he had 42 -- many from the neighborhood where he grew up.
"A little girl almost made me cry yesterday 'cause she cried because she missed, what I think they said, she missed almost a week, if I'm not mistaken - they said a week of school just due to transportation, and she cried because she was so happy to go to school," Rogers said.
"He's a blessing. He is a blessing," said parent, Quetta Jaye. "That's helpful. Helps a lot of kids out."
Parents there said they are stuck without an option.
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"The buses don't come in the morning [and] they don't come at night. Like, they didn't have no driver for our kids to make it to school and back," Jaye added.
The bus driver shortage is impacting kids across the country, but in central Ohio, Columbus City schools said 15-20% of the district's drivers called off almost every day this week, officials said at a school board meeting Tuesday night.
"Our team is also advocating at the state level for measures that will enable us to provide improved transportation services. This includes the use, the vans and additional certification opportunities for trainees," said Talisa Dixon, superintendent of Columbus City Schools.
While parents are thankful the limo driver has stepped up, the school district is not, pointing out that the limo is not approved for student transportation.
