Residents of Kiln, Mississippi, are hailing several middle school students as heroes for stopping their school bus after the driver passed out behind the wheel due to a medical emergency.
The bus, carrying roughly forty students, had barely left Hancock Middle School in Hancock County, Mississippi, when the driver, Leah Taylor, suffered an asthma attack. Unfortunately, before she could grab her medication, she lost consciousness.
Several students combined to avert a disaster
That’s when five Hancock Middle School students leaped into action. Sixth-grader Jackson Casnave grabbed the steering wheel when he noticed the bus was “veering off to the side.”
“I didn’t have time to process my emotions,” Casnave, 12, told The Associated Press. “I just wanted to make sure that nobody got hurt.”
Another sixth-grader, Darrius Clark, also 12-years-old, stepped on the brakes. Combined, the two students eventually managed to wrangle the big school bus to a stop in the median.
“She passed out again and then the bus started rolling forward, and I mean it started gaining speed so I didn’t know it had air brakes – so when I clicked the brakes it about threw me out the windshield,” said Clark.
While all of this was going on, Kayleigh, Clark’s 13-year-old sister, contacted 911. She said there were so many students yelling that she could hardly hear the operator.
Two other students, 15-year-old Destiny Cornelius, and McKenzy Finch, 13, saw that Taylor was holding a nebulizer, held Taylor’s head, and administered the medication.
The bus driver has recovered, and the school honored the students
“I’m grateful for my students,” said Taylor after recovering from the ordeal. “They’re the ones that saved my life and everybody else’s on that bus.”
As a reward for their quick thinking and bravery, the school will take the students on a field trip to a restaurant of their choice for lunch next week after honoring them during a pep rally.