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An open resignation letter to the Clarksville-Montgomery County School System from bus driver Geof Bennett:

My name is Geof Bennett, and I most recently drove Bus 13-07 (I drove bus 08-10 on the same route last year) for Northeast Middle and High School, Oakland Elementary and whatever extra routes that were needed of me.

I genuinely do love performing this community service of driving students to and from school, which is why it is with great regret that I will no longer be able to drive for the Clarksville-Montgomery County School System until such time as there is a protective mask mandate in effect and all school employees are required to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

The combination of more students returning to traditional school this fall and allowing simple and effective safety measures, like a mask, to be optional has made our school buses the most dangerous place for our children in the school system.

In my last two days, I have averaged over 60 middle and high students per run and over 70 elementary students. If you consider that the interior space of a school bus has approximately 250 square feet, that equates to about 3.5 to 4 square feet per student (but of course the actual amount must be smaller because students are not allowed to sit or stand in the aisle or drivers area).

According to the “CMCSS Return to School/Work Flowchart” if a person has been a “Close Contact” of a confirmed positive, they must quarantine for 10 days. The flowchart goes on to define close contact as “any individual who was within 6 feet of an infected person for at least 15 minutes starting from 2 days before illness onset.”

I can tell you the students on my bus spend more than 15 minutes together (my middle and high run last year typically lasted 40 minutes). And a 6-foot radius from any infected student will cover nearly half the bus.

While it was extremely difficult to keep kids in their masks last year, at least I could try.

At the beginning of the 2020-21 school year, the lackadaisical attitudes expressed by some of the drivers I attended training with inspired me to write to my supervisors asking them to help explain the importance of masking up on the bus. My suggestions were not implemented nor even mentioned in any other training events that I attended.

In the email I wrote last year, I made a prediction that is now coming true when I said, “When my kids come home sick, CMCSS will lose another driver.”

On the first half day of school, Monday the 9th, my 10-year-old (voluntarily masked) daughter was seated between two unmasked boys who would go on to test positive for COVID-19. We would not learn about these positive tests (nor the third student from her class who had also tested positive) until after my daughter stayed home from school on Friday due to what we thought was simply a cold. It was my daughter who figured out that the boys in front and behind her had been missing on Thursday.

My daughter will be out of school for 10 days. My 8-year-old son will be out of school for 20 days, per the flowchart, “Household Contact: Must quarantine for 10 days after the positive person has completed their (minimum) 10-day isolation period.”

Needless to say, I simply cannot work while my children are home sick. I will not be able to return to work until steps have been taken to protect our kids, our community and CMCSS employees.

It was somewhat reassuring in the last few days to see a few students who are taking this seriously and choosing to wear masks. To them and their parents, I would strongly recommend finding an alternative method of transportation to school. This will serve two purposes. First, it will put more distance between them and potentially infected classmates. Second, it would reduce the student load on the bus, thereby increasing the space between students and, maybe, marginally reducing those students’ potential exposure.

It has been my pleasure to be a driver for CMCSS. I’ve been very proud to be able to serve the community in this position. I fully understand, and I am terribly sorry for, the additional burden that my fellow drivers will have to carry in my absence, but I cannot continue performing a service where my children’s safety is not of the highest importance.

To the students on Bus 13-07, stay safe and go do great things guys.

Geof Bennett