Complaint Review: Mt. Healthy City Schools - Cincinnati Ohio

Before I go on with my true story, please bear in mind that ALL public schools in State of OH, and perhaps in many other states, are "private industries." Contrary to the public's beliefs, public schools are now run as each separate "private enterprise", as it should be a crime to further fund any school district with taxpayer levies. School employees are not employed by the State, at least not here in OH, so there's no reason why it should be fair for property owners to be burdened down with high taxes, paying for a PRIVATE industry.

*All the people's names have been changed in story for Confidential Reasons.

If you desire to become a school bus driver, WOMEN need not apply to Mt. Healthy City School Districts, since they allow a very chauvinistic school bus trainer, Dave to harrass, degrade, and disrepect his women trainees in every aspect he can, while he's also a bi-polar "Dr. Jeykll-Mr. Hyde", claiming he's a Christian minister, but in reality, a "wolf in sheep's clothing"! Besides other women before me, he has done nothing but threaten me; degrade me; and put me down, even cracking "sexiest comments" about women like me, having experience as an OTR truck driver, saying such derogatory things like, "ALL the men I train, they pass their Pre-trips and State Test on their very first tries. The women, well, they need HELP in passing, because NONE of them can pass their very first time or even after that sometimes." He then kept saying stuff like, "You keep acting like a truck driver, So-n-So! Drive the BUS, since you're not in a truck anymore!. I can tell Stan anything I want to about you, as he will always believe me and not you (or anyone else.)! I can't understand why my trainees run for other school districts, before I am even done training them!" As you have guessed, within my first day or two of training with Dave, he already had me labeled as "Failed", as my "sins" were being able to correctly get school bus backed into cones, which I did, and when I made my turns, not curbing the bus, but allowing back wheels to be within safe distance of curb, so to cut back to the right, not allowing any vehicles to sneak past me. He got furious with me on that, said I should make turns way shorter, even if it would have resulted in me taking out a pole or ending up ON the curve. NOTHING I did, right or wrong, was good enough for this "Trainer From Hell", as I will give you another eg.: Tires on both buses and trucks should be 4/32" tread depths on front ones and 2/32" on back ones----Dave got all mad at me, practically making me out to be a liar, as he told me, "That's not true! I KNOW it's not true! 4/32" are for the BACK Tires, not the front ones! I SEEN this in the Handbook! You're not driving a truck, a BUS! So get it right!" Then I replied, "O.K. I will do it YOUR way, Dave, the next time around." By golly, I did it DAVE'S way on Pre-trip Inspection the very next day, and guess what: He then yells at me, saying "2/32 inches is wrong for front tires (and vice versa)!" Here I was correct the very first time, so on this continued through my training, which was from Hell!

Dave hardly let me drive, as the more he knew I was familiar about a mostly male-dominated profession such as truck driving, the more angrier, ruder, and downgrading he got towards me. Trucks and buses do have practically the same parts, especially, under the hoods, along with tire depths; their air brake systems; etc. I am not ashamed to admit I have my Class A CDL License, which by the way I passed without hassle, and got my license back in late-2006, so not bowing down to a male chauvinist pig like Dave, just to make him "feel better about himself"! I bet if HE took his State Test for truck driving, he may not have passed; otherwise, he would not feel "threatened" by women being in the trucking industry. Dave has some very serious low self-esteem, discriminating issues, along with being a "Dr. Jeykll-Mr. Hyde", so makes me wonder how the school can allow him to work driving a school bus, when there's kids on board. I also heard from another worker in the school that Dave has done same downgrading, threatening, harrassing tactics to other women in the past, purposely chasing them away, like he did to me. How would he KNOW if these past "students" went to drive for other school districts or not, when many are most likely like myself, so disgusted that we have forever given up on becoming school bus drivers.

I was wondering why Mt. Healthy City Schools charges me and others for our own Drug Screens; Physicals; etc. as "upfront fees", as State of OH responded to my complaint as saying, "The schools operate on their own, as none of employees are considered state employees." State of OH also don't seem to govern the affairs of these schools, so next time a school levy is up for votes, remember you are funding a "PRIVATE industry", not a public one. This is no different than people voting to pay for tax increases to fund corporations, etc., as millions of these are "private industries." Sad to say, I am very disappointed in Mt. Healthy City Schools, since I attended and graduated from this school system, as all they do is treat their UNPAID trainees like vomit, while stabbing them in the back, like they did me and others before me. I pay taxes to this school district, yet, they don't appreciate the people that are stuck supporting them, while they run as a "private enterprise", not in the good faith of the public, thinking otherwise. They lie, cheat, and steal, along with their big-shots giving themselves whopping pay increases off tax levy dollars, while the teachers; school bus drivers; janitors (now contracted out); etc., are grossly underpaid and treated like dirt. I don't know how school employees can even begin to draw a State Pension when retiring, when they are not deemed "employees of the State" to begin with.

Why did I get out of OTR trucking? Because I found out the hard way that unless a driver can afford to stay OTR for over a year or more, most trucking cos. won't hire him/her. The very few carriers hiring new drivers or students just graduating from trucking schools, they usually pay .26-.28 cents per mile, while not being paid for hours incurred waiting on docks for loads, and having to sit for days waiting on frieght to haul. Without enough miles or loads, I couldn't afford being OTR, but at same time, only have a few months OTR, which don't qualify me for 99% of better trucking jobs. With my husband's and other people's advice, I thought school bus driving would be a nice career, since it's all local: Found out the hard way that every school district charges "upfront fees", while paying $0.00 to train. Some of the last words Dave told me were, "You can go rent a bus to drive for another school district, for all I care! (He then proceeded to threaten me with that "I will tell Stan anything I want to about you" stuff).

On my very last training day with Dave, another woman was also in training, as she and Dave knew each other EXTREMELY well, as she almost took out a pole and fire hydrant on one of her turns, yet he was all "Mr. Nice" with her. Everywhere she went, he was with her like a fly on dung, actly very rude and curt towards me when she walked in front of him inside school's main headquarters building, leaving me outside to do my own Pre-trip! And guess what: No chalks for under the wheels, as I was expected to do my Pre-trip, including Air Brake Tests on a HILL, trying to keep bus from rolling backwards down it. In a real State Test, only on level ground is where test is done at AND if it was on a hill, I would have flunked for not putting chalks under those wheels! Only this woman trainee, who was extra "thick" with Dave, was allowed to drive the bus, while Dave ignored me on the bus and sweetly talked to her. I would say she either belongs to his church or knows him in other friendly ways.

I hope my ordeal warns YOU, the reader, as to WHY schools are not getting nearly enough school bus drivers, and if they are anything discriminatory like Mt. Healthy City Schools, bigger reason why! These schools rob the taxpayers out of their money, so the big-shots can live high on the hog, while charging school bus trainees outrageous "fees" to do FREE training, then stabbing trainees in the backs afterwards. I was reading statistics on extra high turnover rates among school bus drivers: I found it's even just as high or HIGHER than newby truck drivers OTR their first few months. My husband even knew some family members, who used to work for Mt. Healthy City Schools, as they were relatives on his now-dead first wife's side of the family. Quite a few years ago, Eddie would tell my husband and his first wife how once tax levy dollars were collected, "the dollar waste" included the big-shots buying new equipment, furniture, etc., but taking home for themselves items from the school for their own personal use, once the new ones were purchased, again, with taxpayer dollars. Eddie used to work in Janitorial, before it was all contracted out several years ago, as he got to see everything imaginable, tactics kept well hidden from taxpayers.

Ladies, unless you wish to be disrespected, harrassed, and threatened by a male chauvinist pig like Dave, do NOT go to Mt. Healthy City Schools, since according to their standards ("acting" is more precise than what they actually SAY), "Women Need Not Apply"! I got the phone call, like I expected from Stan, who is Director of Transporation at Mt. Healthy City Schools, telling me "not to finish out my training", which comes on the heels of Dave threatening to "Tell Stan anything he wants to about me, since Stan will listen and believe what he says, but not me (or anyone else)." If Stan had issues of me being stuck working 1st Shift, while I tried training, which was FREE to the school, then he should have told me much sooner. Because the economy is extra bad, I have to take any shift I can, as 1st Shift is about only one available, while many companies laid off their 2nd and 3rd Shifts. With Dave's "threat", I know HE had sole decision in getting even with me, since I wouldn't bail out and run like the other women trainees he's had. On days I wasn't working, Dave found every excuse in the book NOT to work with me.

I would hate to see other women go through the torment and humiliation I did, trying to become a school bus driver. It's bad enough I had to "pay upfront" to train; but even worse to have only a male chauvinist pig put down me and other women, degrading women like they are nothing but "slaves to men." I don't see how he even gets any church members, being the hyprocrit minister he really is, besides not talking very highly of his disabled wife, which she should be canonized a "Saint" living with such a "Dr. Jeykll-Mr. Hyde." If Mt. Healthy City Schools was sincere, they would conduct an investigation by not only taking down my complaint, but also talking to the women trainees Dave "caused to run away from him", to get their true stories of how Dave had treated them. Now if other women in the school have heard about Dave's sexist attitudes and disrespectful manners towards the women he trains, I would venture to say that since it's before I ever came into the picture, Dave has been terrorizing his female school bus trainees for quite some time. How else would these ladies know "Dave is so 2-faced and discriminating" against women becoming school bus drivers, etc., unless another one of his "trainee victims" already passed the word around?

Teri and frank

Cincinnati, Ohio

U.S.A.