Lexington (Neb.) Public Schools’ Kris Saulsbury checks under the hood. The transportation and maintenance supervisor says she regularly encounters second-guessers in her line of work.


keep very clear records so I can say, ‘We just did that six months ago, so why do I need to do it again?’” Lair, the only mechanic in Live


Oak, also doubles as a bus driver. She has been with the district for 17 years and spent the previous 12 years as a heavy equipment mechanic in the U.S. Air Force, where the hostility was overt. “Tat was the hardest time,” she


recalled. “Tey had just opened up that career field to women, and (the men) did not want me there.” Lair, who was more than qualified,


was actually her district’s second choice after a male candidate backed out at the last minute. Lair had never worked on buses, and no one explained the job to her. Tat did not help when an inspector from the California Highway Patrol came calling. “He went through the buses from top to bottom, writing up every- thing,” she said. “I told him no one told me what I was supposed to do, and he took the time to tell me what I was supposed to inspect.” None of Lair’s buses have failed an inspection since, but every time


52 School Transportation News March 2014


the CHP has changed inspectors, the process repeated itself. “Every time we get a new inspec-


tor, they go through my buses com- pletely trying to find stuff because I am a woman,” she said. “When they find that my buses are in good shape, they back off.” Dupille said she still has to doubly


prove herself to her fellow mechanics. “Sometimes I’ll come across


something, and say this bus has a fuel leak or an exhaust leak, and it has to be verified by a male mechanic before it is considered valid,” Dupille said. “Tere is one mechanic who takes my word for it. He knows I can see things that aren’t right, and he just goes with it.” Lair, Dupille and Saulsbury advise


any women looking to become technicians to equip themselves with knowledge, ignore the naysayers and stay determined. “Tis is a lifetime profession that,


once you learn, you will always have it with you,” Dupille concluded. “I tell my daughter, ‘You can be anything you want to be. Obviously. Look at me’.” 


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