A former Sampson County Schools employee, who asked that their name not be used, recently stepped forward to share their experience after being terminated under a school board policy dealing with school bus licensure.
In June, the Sampson County Board of Education approved Policy 7400, resulting in the dismissal of 15 employees — including cafeteria assistants, custodians and teacher assistants — who were unable to also drive a school bus. However, the former employee said terminations based on those grounds actually began in August 2025, before the school year started.
The person interviewed for this article said they among the first employees to be dismissed.
“When you’re hired as a teacher assistant, it is in the contract that you have to obtain a bus license, so I did that,” the former employee acknowledged. “The principal who hired me in 2022 knew when he hired me that I was not able to drive a bus mentally.”
According to the former employee, that principal required the bus course to be completed and the license to be obtained but explained to the employee that a doctor’s note would exempt the employee from driving.
“He said, ‘I have enough drivers at the school that you won’t have to worry about taking a bus, and as long as you have a doctor’s note and I have it on file, you will not have to worry about driving.’”
Then things changed.
A new principal arrived the following year and, according to the former employee, “That’s where it just kinda went south.”
The former employee said the new principal was aware of the situation but continued to insist they drive a bus.
“I guess he thought he was gonna bully me into driving, and I simply told him no — that I was not gonna drive a bus, that I had a doctor’s note on file, and that he can’t make me drive the bus,” the former employee attested. “Like I told him, if I have a panic attack with a busload of kids, do you want me to just stop the bus and leave those kids in the middle of nowhere? Because that’s exactly what would’ve happened.”
The former employee said working as a teacher assistant allowed flexibility if a panic attack occurred.
“In a classroom, if I have an attack, there’s another teacher in there,” the former employee stressed. “If I need to walk down the hall and get my thoughts together and get myself together, I can do that, but I can’t do that (with) a busload of kids.”
The former employee, who feared providing their name because of employment concerns, emphasized that they were not trying to avoid working on a bus.
In fact, they served as a monitor on an EC bus, rotating duties with another aide because dependable help was difficult to find at the time, they said.
“I was done really ugly,” the former employee said of the termination.
When the 2025-26 school year began, the employee said they asked the new principal whether they would still have a job. According to the former employee, the principal said he did not know and would need to speak with the county office.
“I even went to open house — he even had me go to open house, and my job was still up in the air,” the former employee said. “So, I got all of my kids, which was a joke. The day after open house, I was made to go to a training because I was in EC, still not knowing if I had a job.
“He called me, even before lunch, and said that I needed to come back to his office because the training was at another school. So, I had to leave that school and go to his office, and that’s where he terminated me.”
The former employee said the principal did not handle the meeting professionally, describing him as “standoffish, short, dispassionate and cold.”
“He made me go through a work week, open house and a partial day of training just to tell me that my job was terminated,” the former employee said. “Had this not gone into effect for other employees, they probably would’ve had a lawsuit because you can’t just do that to one. I was one of the first ones.”
Despite losing the position, the former employee said they took the job seriously.
“I was a good employee; I was a good assistant. I didn’t call out of work. I arrived 20 to 30 minutes early every day. I was one of the first ones at that school every day. I was very dependable, and let’s face it, when you’re in EC, not many people are beating down doors to go work in that position.”
As of this week, several teacher assistant positions remained open in Sampson County Schools as the 2026-27 school year approaches.