SANDERSVILLE, Ga. — Jessica Womble says she's the woman who found an autistic child alone after being left on a bus for hours.
"He kept saying, 'My mama's at home, my mama's at home,' so but he did come to me and I took him on the inside of the bus station," Womble recalled.
More shocking than finding the child is what she says she was told by the Director of Transportation, Robert Ferebe.
"Mr. Ferebe told me not to say anything to anybody, so at that point, I'm questioning myself like, 'Why doesn't he want me to say anything to anybody?'" Womble said.
Instead, she made a post on Facebook recalling that day.
Womble says she'd met requirements to become a substitute driver and was even given a copy of the route she would be driving. On the day she was set to begin work, she believes honesty cost her the job.
"I really feel like it’s a form of retaliation because I did the right thing, because I spoke up to the community and let them know what they did to that little boy," she explained.
Womble isn't the only one with a concern about transparency. Paige Pickens says her son had an situation that led to a serious injury.
"Apparently, from what my son told me, was he didn't want to play with him anymore on the bus, so the little boy pushed him down and he hit his head on the window and it busted his head open," she said about the incident.
Pickens says her son's injury required staples. The board told her there would be an investigation-- but if anything came of it, she says they didn't tell her.
"I talked to the board of education about it in the bus barn and they sat there and said the camera obviously wasn't on or it wasn't working that day, but they had no footage of that day," Pickens said.
With three children in the district, Womble says speaking out is bigger than a job opportunity.
"Something has to be done or he's going to continue to do the same thing just like this, sweep stuff under the rug," Womble said.
We contacted the Washington County Board of Education to give them a chance to address the allegations and the concerns about transparency. We also asked about the protocol for handling incident reports, they did not respond.