Additional Coverage:
- Mississippi middle schoolers stop runaway bus after driver loses consciousness from asthma attack (foxnews.com)
A group of quick-thinking middle school students in Mississippi prevented a potential disaster this week when their bus driver lost consciousness on a busy highway.
About 40 students from Hancock Middle School were riding the bus when driver Leah Taylor, 46, suffered an asthma attack shortly after leaving school. Taylor tried to reach for her medication but passed out before she could get it.
That’s when the students sprang into action. Twelve-year-old sixth grader Jackson Casnave, seated just behind the driver, noticed the bus swerving.
Without hesitation, he moved forward, grabbed the steering wheel, and called for assistance. Meanwhile, his classmate Darrius Clark, also 12, pressed the brakes.
Together, with other students’ help, they steered the bus safely to the median and brought it to a stop.
Darrius’s sister, 13-year-old Kayleigh Clark, dialed 911 despite the chaos and noise around her. “I was scared, but also I had to help,” she later recounted. Meanwhile, eighth grader Destiny Cornelius, 15, helped administer the driver’s nebulizer medication, assisted by 13-year-old McKenzy Finch, who also alerted the school district’s transportation team after noticing the driver’s phone ringing.
Thanks to their swift actions, no one was harmed. Taylor has since fully recovered and expressed deep gratitude for the students’ bravery.
“I’m grateful for my students,” she said. “They’re the ones that saved my life and everybody else’s on that bus.”
The school recognized the heroic students at a pep rally Friday and plans to celebrate their courage with a special lunch next week. Principal Dr.
Melissa Saucier praised them, saying, “What they did took courage. They didn’t wait for somebody to step in, they stepped up themselves, and that says a lot about their character.”