Some 140 school bus routes are being suspended in Seattle, Washington on Monday, as the statewide COVID-19 vaccination mandate takes effect for school district workers, including school bus drivers. Seattle Public Schools (SPS), which serves more than 52,000 students, announced last week the plan to suspend as many as 142 bus routes. The district said it was anticipating a significant decrease in available bus drivers following the COVID-19 vaccination deadline. An SPS official told The Epoch Times that the district is working to assess the impact of the bus driver shortage, including the actual number of bus routes that are suspended on Monday morning. The SPS doesn’t own or operate school buses, but instead relies on First Student, a third-party contractor, for bus service. “Like most school bus and transportation services throughout the country, First Student has been experiencing driver shortages,” the district said in an Oct. 15 letter to …