PYLESVILLE, Md. — An adorable kitten, spotted wandering along a desolate road, was rescued when 67-year-old Cynthia Morgan pulled over in her school bus and allowed a 10-year-old student to rescue it.
She has since lost her certification and her job, and parents like Carolyn Kalambihis are appealing to the Harford County school system to reinstate her.
“She’s been wonderful. She’s been driving my children for five years,” said Kalambihis, “I feel that transportation from home to school is one of the most important times of my kids’ day and we have come to know Cynthia and see how wonderfully she treats our kids and the other kids on her route.”
In a statement, the school system says it can’t discuss the certification status of any driver, but such decisions would involve the careful review of safety requirements.
Cynthia’s supporters say they realize bringing the kitten on the bus could have exposed children to allergies or rabies, not to mention allowing the child to get off the bus in the first place.
“We live in an extremely rural area. The road where the child picked up the cat, there is no traffic. I know she would not have let a child out on a road where there was cars. There’s no cars,” said Kalambihis, “It disturbed me more that she had her job taken from her, than the act of compassion. She did make a mistake, and we feel that the real mistake in the situation was that she lost her job for it.”
An on-line petition, at last look, had drawn almost seven thousand supporters in favor of giving the driver a second chance, and as for the kitten, it retains the remainder of its nine lives and may even find a forever home with the student who picked it up from the side of the road and his family once it can safely be put up for adoption.
