A school bus driver in Millcreek, Pennsylvania says she lost her job days after she pulled over mid-route to save eight infant opossums whose mother had just been killed in traffic.
What Happened
Rose Sheakley was driving her regular route with five children on board when she spotted something unusual near Cherry Street — a motionless animal on the pavement, with faint movement beside it. She circled back to check.
What she found was a mother opossum that hadn’t survived being struck, but her litter of eight babies had. Worried that one of the joeys would wander into traffic, Sheakley said she made a split-second call: she halted oncoming vehicles, wrapped the newborns in a blanket, carried them clear of the road, and then carried on with her route as scheduled.
She didn’t hide what she’d done. Once her shift ended, Sheakley reported the rescue to her supervisors herself.
“If I didn’t tell on myself, nobody would have known,” she said.
Within days, she says she was handed a termination notice, with the company citing that she had left students unsupervised on the bus during the stop.
Her former employer, First Student, said in a statement that keeping students, staff, and the community safe remains its top priority, and confirmed the driver’s contract ended following an internal review of the incident.
Why It Matters
The case has stirred debate over where the line sits between compassion for wildlife and responsibility for the children on board — two duties that briefly pulled in opposite directions on that stretch of road.
The eight rescued joeys are currently being cared for at a wildlife rehabilitation center in the region. Wildlife officials note that anyone who comes across injured or abandoned animals should prioritize their own safety first, and get the animal to a licensed rehabilitator within a day or two whenever it’s safe to do so. Opossums, wildlife experts add, serve a quiet but useful role in local ecosystems as natural scavengers.
What People Are Saying
Sheakley has said she holds no grudge against her former employer, but she’s equally clear that she’d make the same choice again.
“I couldn’t not get them, but I knew that I wasn’t supposed to,” she said.
She also pointed out the timing couldn’t be worse for districts already struggling to staff routes. “We’re really short on bus drivers,” she said, adding that shortages like this end up delaying kids getting home.
Asked if she’d repeat the decision knowing the outcome, she didn’t hesitate: “Honestly, in the same situation, I probably would have done the same thing again.”