HARFORD COUNTY, Md. (WJZ) - Parents in a rural Maryland community are rallying behind a school bus driver who was fired after she stopped to let a student rescue an injured kitten.

Cynthia Morgan, 67, worked as a school bus driver in the Harford County Public Schools district for 11 years. She was recently removed from her route after she let a North Harford Elementary School student get off the bus to pick up an injured kitten. Morgan says being fired devastated her.

Parents like Carolyn Kalambihis say they understand the safety concerns but believe removing Morgan from her route was excessive. Video recorded on the rural Heaps School Road shows little traffic, a detail parents say is important to understanding what happened.

“We live in North Harford, so it’s very rural back here. She wouldn’t have done it, you know, let a child get off the bus to get a kitten if it was a more high-traffic road,” Kalambihis said.

She says Morgan has been driving her kids to school for five years, and they absolutely love her.

“She is an angel. She’s the most caring person. Every year at the beginning of the school year, she buys every child on the bus school supplies. She buys them gifts for Christmas, every holiday, birthdays. She’s given them birthday cards, all out of her own pocket,” Kalambihis said.