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In a matter of seconds, the students sprang into action.
Sixth grader Jackson Casnave, 12, who was sitting directly
behind the driver, noticed the bus beginning to swerve. Casnave
jumped up to steer and told others to call for help.
“I didn’t have time to process my emotions,” Casnave said. “I
just wanted to make sure that nobody got hurt.”
Another sixth grader, 12-year-old Darrius Clark, hit the brakes,
and together the two managed to maneuver the bus onto a median
and put it in park.
Clark's 13-year-old sister Kayleigh ran from the back of the bus
to the front and called 911. She said later that she could
hardly hear the emergency operator because so many students were
screaming.
“I was scared, but also I had to help,” said Kayleigh Clark, an
eighth grader.
Fellow eighth grader Destiny Cornelius, 15, also ran up to help
and noticed that Taylor was holding a nebulizer. Cornelius
administered the medicine while McKenzy Finch, a 13-year-old
sixth grader, held Taylor's head.
Finch also picked up Taylor's phone, which was ringing, and told
the district's transportation team what had happened.
“I’m grateful for my students,” said Taylor, who has made a full
recovery. “They’re the ones that saved my life and everybody
else’s on that bus.”
The students were honored at a pep rally Friday and will be
treated to a lunch field trip next week at a restaurant of their
choosing.
“What they did took courage,” principal Dr. Melissa Saucier
said. “They didn’t wait for somebody to step in, they stepped up
themselves, and that says a lot about their character.”
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