By Laura Hunt Miller
CHOUDRANT, La. — For more than 30 years, Terri Simmons has driven what might be Choudrant’s closest thing to a magic school bus. There may not be any talking lizards or trips through outer space, but there are seasonal treat bags, cold water on hot afternoons, prizes for nervous preschoolers, and a driver who cares deeply for her riders.
Mrs. Terri’s career began almost on a dare. A friend and local bus driver, Carissa Colvin, encouraged her to learn to drive a bus. When Terri’s husband told her she would never do it, Mrs. Terri decided to prove otherwise. She earned her license, spent 16 years driving in Ruston, then made her way back to Choudrant.
Now in her 31st year behind the wheel, Mrs. Terri has “started on a second generation,” as some of the children riding her bus today are the sons and daughters of students she once drove years before.
Mrs. Terri began driving bus routes while also working full-time at the bank. She would drive children to school in the morning, go to work at the bank, take a late lunch break to run the afternoon route, then return to work. All while raising four children of her own.
Her daughter, Lacey Cooper, said that work ethic came naturally to her mother. “She’s the definition of selfless,” Cooper said. “You’ll find a lot of people that are helpful when it’s convenient, but you don’t find a lot of people that are helpful when it’s inconvenient, and that’s what she does.”
That instinct to care for people runs through the family. Mrs. Terri is the daughter of the renowned Mrs. Sue Lane, a familiar Choudrant figure who spent nearly six decades working at the local bank. She was known for caring her customers, remembering their needs, and treating them like friends and neighbors rather than account numbers.
Mrs. Terri carried that same habit of care to her own “little darlings,” as her bank manager came to call the students she spoke of so fondly. All these years later, they are still her little darlings. Before her bus had air conditioning, one particularly hot year she kept an ice chest filled with cold water for children facing long rides home in the Louisiana heat. During the COVID-19 pandemic, mandatory masks frightened some of her youngest riders. Mrs. Terri figured it was because they could no longer see her smile when they climbed aboard, so she bought a bucket of small toys for the little ones. “If they got on the bus and didn’t cry, they got a prize,” she said. And boy did plenty of smiles ensue.
Another beloved Mrs. Terri tradition is her seasonal treat bags. Throughout the school year, everything from Halloween to Valentine’s Day is celebrated with a treat bag for each of her riders, all of which she provides out of her own pocket.
Every parent knows their child is safe and cared for when they get on Mrs. Terri’s bus. Choudrant High School Principal Chris Jones recalled a new pre-K student who rode Terri’s bus for the first time. The next day, the child was not there. Mrs. Terri noticed immediately and called to make sure he had not accidentally been left at school. “She remembered his name,” Jones said. “Of all the kids on the bus, she noticed the one kid who had only been there once.”
That kind of attentiveness has earned a rare level of trust from parents and staff. Jones said that in roughly a decade of dealing with student discipline, he cannot remember receiving one parent complaint about Mrs. Terri. Mrs. Terri says the secret is not complicated: “I think they know I love them, so I respect them and they respect me.”
Her riders are not perfect, she is quick to add, and she never expects them to be. “My kids are good,” she said. “I don’t expect them to be perfect. I didn’t expect any kids to be.”
It was easy to see as current students, former students and teachers greeted Mrs. Terri in the hall: everything that comes under the umbrella of Mrs. Terri’s care finds a lifetime of love. Former riders stop her in stores and pharmacies, sometimes as towering adults she can barely recognize as the little children she cared for. One former student even recognized her while on a cruise in the middle of the ocean, much to Mrs. Terri’s joy and surprise. And now, some of those now-grown riders are lucky enough to be able to send their own children to school on Mrs. Terri’s bus.
Mrs. Terri says it feels natural to care so deeply for a community where her family connections stretch through generations. Her mother attended school there, Mrs. Terri attended Choudrant, her children followed, and now her grandchildren are there as well.
And when her beloved husband Tommy became ill with cancer, the community Mrs. Terri had spent years caring for surrounded her family with fundraisers, shirts, meals and support before his passing in 2020. Cooper said that moment reflected something she has learned from watching her mother, “When you pour into people, then they pour back into you.”
After more than three decades, Mrs. Terri’s goal for her darlings remains the same, “Even if they had a bad day at school,” she said, “they aren’t gonna have a bad day on the bus.”
If only we were all so lucky to have a Mrs. Terri in our lives. From the bottom of the hearts of Choudrant and beyond, thank you, Mrs. Terri, for all your love, patience and care over the years!
