ST. CHARLES COUNTY (KMOX) - A bus driver says she was forced to resign after allowing students to remove their masks while on a bus where the internal temperature was over 105 degrees.
Melissa Hewitt quit her job Wednesday with the Fort Zumwalt School District after her supervisor told her she could either resign or be fired. Temperatures in the area were reaching near triple digits this week, with a heat index as high as 110 degrees.
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She says she was worried about the children's health.
"Their checks were so red, they flush, they were sweating," she says. "You could visibly- I mean anybody with two eyes could see that these kids were, I don't to say in pain, but yeah, in pain basically because it is ridiculously hot."
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She says she told the kids, some of which were high school students:
"If you feel like you're going to be sick, if you feel like you're going to pass out then take your mask off. Now, could I have chosen different words? Sure."
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She says her director told her she needed to direct the kids to pull their masks down, take a couple breaths of air and then put it back on.
The district says it's not commenting on the personnel matter.
Hewitt says she posted a photo on her social media page that showed the temperature of the bus was 105.9 degrees. It's something she admitted she wasn't authorized by the district to do and is against district policy.
A GoFundMe page was setup for Hewitt with a $5,000 goal to help "this hero bus driver for doing the right thing for our children."
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