A group of quick-thinking kids in Mississippi stepped up to stop their school bus after the driver passed out at the wheel — while they were on a four-lane highway.
The students had just left the Hancock middle school in the Mississippi town of Kiln on Wednesday when bus driver Leah Taylor suddenly suffered an asthma attack and lost consciousness.
Sixth-grader Jackson Casnave, 12, who was sitting behind the driver’s seat, jumped up and grabbed the wheel when the bus started to swerve.
“I didn’t have time to process my emotions,” Casnave said. “I just wanted to make sure nobody got hurt.”
A classmate, 12-year-old Darrius Clark, hit the brakes and between them, they were able to get the bus off the road and put it in park.
Clark’s 13-year-old sister, Kayleigh, called 911, but said there were so many students screaming inside the bus, she couldn’t hear what the woman was telling her.
Other kids helped by finding Taylor’s nebulizer and administering the medication while another held her head.
“They saved my life,” Taylor said later.
A student 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, 46. “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.”
