VOICE FOR EVERYONE | Share your voice with KSHB 41’s Alyssa Jackson
If you've been outside, you've either heard it or said it — it's hot.
Bus drivers are bracing for the possibility of triple digits this week and trying to keep their students cool, because it feels even hotter on a bus when you only have air coming in from outside.
Robin Brown, a driver for Student Transportation of America, has been on the job longer than most of her students have been in school, so this isn't new.
"I started doing this 25 years ago and we didn't have any air conditioning at the time," Brown said. "Then, they upgraded over the years and I think it just depends."
While it's not uncommon for school buses to be without air conditioning, it's still been a long time since Brown felt heat like this. She's doing what she can to get through the hot days.
"Water, paper towels, my cooling towel," Brown said. "Kids are like, 'You're soaking wet.' And I'm like, 'Yes, sit down so we can get to these stops."
She drives throughout the afternoon and evening for Kansas City Public Schools and Genesis School checking and double-checking her students know where they are.
"I get on my intercom and I'm like, 'Okay anyone for 42nd and Forest?'"
Her little fan helps out just enough.
"I try to get them home as quick as I can," she said. "I have some that fall asleep and I know it's because it's so hot."
The heat might be a lot to bear in the first week back at Genesis School, but she can handle it.
"It is worth it because they're babies, they're our future."
If you're riding her bus, you won't get off without some laughs on the way home
"I tell them, 'Hey, let's sing some songs — the wheels on the bus go what?'"
Kevin Foster, the head of Genesis School, showed KSHB 41 their supply of cold water bottles for drivers to grab in between their routes.
It's also strongly encouraged for them to sit inside instead of waiting on the bus for students to be dismissed.
Foster said to add to the heat concerns, kids have been delayed a couple of hours coming home in the first couple days of school this week because there are less drivers available.
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