Hello, name is Frank Nary. Almost a year ago, I lost my job as a bus driver for Prince William County Schools in Virginia. Actually, it's been over a year since they stopped paying me; they just wouldn't let me come back to work and then finally fired me with the excuse of not working...

I'd discovered I had a hernia in the summer of 2024. I have to wonder if having to break up fights on my bus, pulling juvenile delinquents off each other, had something to do with it. Transportation decided security is only needed at the school entrance and not for the ride there... but my surgeon said I could have been born with the condition. It turned out I actually had three hernias to fix...

I was scheduled for surgery in October 2024. I filled out the forms to request leave and I know HR got the info because my supervisor took pictures of the doctors note and sent the info while I was in his office. Although I had missed a couple days due to what seemed like a cold that took a long time to go away, I continued to work up until the day of my scheduled surgery in October.

The surgery was supposed to be short and I'd be going home that night. When I woke from it, they told me it was 24 hours later and I'd been in a medically induced coma. I'd been transported to another hospital's ICU and was being treated for suspected tuberculosis due to having gangrene in my lungs. Fortunately, it was "only" necrotizing pneumonia. I spent a week there but it was hard to believe it was anything that serious. After all, I'd worked through September despite my illness and felt I'd recovered by the time of my surgery.

I'd asked for four weeks of leave but ended up needing five due to the pneumonia on top of the surgery. I turned in the medical clearance letter from my doctor to my supervisor. On my first day returning to work, I found they still had my bus runs covered for me. On talking to the dispatcher, I learned that HR hadn't accepted my doctor's letter. When I asked HR what more I needed, I was told the letter had to be from 'a medical professional' and not my surgeon. After weeks of dealing with Kaiser Permanente, a whole 'nother story, to get a letter they'd approve, HR told me it was too late and they were firing me.

It wasn't even that doctor's note they were using as the reason: they said they didn't approve of my leave for the surgery in the first place and were using my absence for that as their justification. Even if it hadn't been for the surgery, I would've ended up in the ICU, or dead, from the gangrene. "Unauthorized" gangrene...

At least I had short-term disability insurance: they accepted my need to be off and my readiness to come back to work, but HR never did. They fought me at every step for reasons I still don't understand. They didn't accept a letter from my primary care physician for me to return to work, they said no one at Kaiser Permanente is a medical professional they'd accept: "It's just an insurance company." They did provide a form to appeal my dismissal, which I turned in to my supervisor per their instructions. He said he'd talk to them before filling it out and it seems they told him not to do it, because they told me it was no good because he hadn't filled it out and also that they never gave me those instructions to have it filled out... Just like how my doctor's letter wasn't a good enough reason to go on leave, then not good enough to allow me to return. How do they square that circle? It's obvious they don't even try. I tried going over their heads to Heather Handschin, the number two big cheese with Transportation, but she refused to step in on my behalf. My supervisor stopped responding to me once he talked to HR too. After 5 years there trying to make myself useful, I must be much worse of an employee than I realized. They officially fired me in January.

Apparently, the pneumonia was caused by a problem with my esophagus: it doesn't open correctly open when I eat and leads to food leaking into my lungs when I lie down to sleep. I had surgery scheduled to fix that last February, but I thought I'd lose my health insurance by then. That's what irked me so much about trying to hold on to my job: they were determined to get rid of me but I needed the insurance; otherwise, I'd want nothing to do with those people, if you can call them that, again.

It turned out my insurance didn't get canceled until the end of February, so it looked like I was going to be able to go through with the surgery after all. However, like the first surgery, I woke up intubated in an ICU with pneumonia again. Unlike the first surgery, they didn't actually perform the second surgery before shipping me to the ICU. I still have the esophagus problem and I still haven't had the follow up MRIs to do from last year. I also have a complication from my first surgery that can't be fixed until they can knock me out safely, after I can get the esophagus surgery.

I'd asked how much COBRA would cost: unaffordable since they put me out of work. I applied for unemployment but PWCS fought that too. I was denied because they said they'd fired me for a just reason. In another display of HR's work, they'd also told the COBRA people I'd had no health insurance in the first place...

We were able to get insurance since then but the deductible is unaffordable. I borrowed money to get my CDL upgraded from B to A and was finally able to land a job driving a HAZMAT tanker in August, but, in yet another blow, my mother-in-law broke her hip and my wife had to stay with her during the recovery. It went on for months because it was discovered she had a tumor on her spine, benign at least, that probably led to the fall. I had to quit driving so our youngest wouldn't be home alone. My wife's back home now, but I've learned just how much lung capacity I've lost over the last year; I'm not sure I can go back to something so physical, I'm falling apart...

I'd originally started this back in March, but I really don't want to have to ask for help. It's been tough getting a job, apparently PWCS has played a big part in that, but I'm still holding on to hope. After almost a year without pay, without unemployment insurance, it's getting a bit tough..

Even if you can't help out, I want to help anyone who sees this: stay away from PWCS. Don't let them do this to you and your family. It's run by robots, the same sort of government employees who stood by and let a man die of a heart attack across the street from their fire station because "You have to call 911. We won't do anything until you call 911." I've seen this happen over and over where they punish parents and students for their own mistakes: "If Mom wants him to ride the bus, she can take him to the stop that's on the paperwork" even when they know the stop is wrong.

Thank you.