School bus drivers and aides are trained to keep students safe, and oftentimes their actions go far beyond their daily responsibilities and routes.

Anywhere from medical emergencies to helping strangers in need, these school transportation professionals relied on quick thinking, training, and compassion when it mattered most. Here are six stories of employees who stepped up to help others and, in some cases, save lives.

Fast Actions As Ventilator Fails

By Thomas McMahon

Quick thinking and effective communication saved the day when a student’s ventilator failed on a Litchfield Elementary School District bus.

On the morning of September 7, the Arizona district’s transportation department was short on school bus drivers, so Ron Rook was moved from his regular route to a special-needs route. His aide, LaVay Calhoun, normally works that route. A nurse, Andrea Powers, was also on board.

As the bus stopped to pick up a student, Rook and Calhoun noticed commotion in the back of the bus. Powers told Calhoun that they needed an ambulance because a 4-year-old passenger’s ventilator had stopped working. The boy has respiratory failure and uses a wheelchair.

Calhoun relayed the message to Rook. As the aide called 911, the driver notified dispatch of the incident and location.

While they waited for EMS, the nurse operated a bag ventilator. Rook stayed in contact with dispatch, while Calhoun stayed in contact with the 911 operator. Both of them worked together to keep the other students on the bus calm.

EMS arrived in about seven minutes. Calhoun then notified the student’s mother, who came to the scene. EMS responders restarted the ventilator, and at the mother’s request, the bus team transported the student to school for the day.

Jeff Walker, director of the district’s transportation department, which comprises 79 staff members and 64 school buses, said that he is exceedingly proud of how the team responded to the incident.

“They handled the situation so professionally, and their communication throughout the event was excellent,” Walker said. “I’ve been driving for over 10 years, and I don’t know if I could have kept myself together as well as Ron and LaVay did.”

At the time of the incident, Rook had been a school bus driver since 2008, while Calhoun had served as an aide since 2009.

The duo’s actions were highlighted in the transportation department’s weekly newsletter, and Walker planned to award them at the department’s year-end barbecue, when honors from throughout the school year are presented.

Teamwork Keeps Autistic Student Safe

By Brittany-Marie Swanson

When Marysville Exempted Village Schools in Ohio provided special-needs training to its school bus drivers and aides in August 2010, administrators never imagined the impact it would have.

The training, which specifically addressed the needs of autistic students, helped an aide and driver control a potentially dangerous situation while they were transporting three special-needs students the following September.

Driver April Grubbs and aide Susan Smith picked up three students from a special-needs school and were taking them home when numerous accidents on the freeway and the resulting traffic congestion prevented them from getting off at the correct exit. The heavy traffic and break in routine caused an autistic student in the van to become agitated.

The student launched himself towards Grubbs’ seat while she was trying to maneuver off the freeway. He then kicked a van window, breaking it. Smith quickly intervened as the student attempted to lean out the window and touch the vehicles on the freeway.

“The driver and the aide just did a really excellent job of keeping everyone safe,” said Amy Morgan, director of transportation for Marysville Exempted Village Schools. “Had [the student] been able to get out of the van, he would have surely been killed.”

Smith was able to restrain the student. She and Grubbs quickly devised a game to calm him — they urged him to count stoplights until they reached an area the student recognized. Grubbs and Smith then pointed out familiar landmarks to help the student recognize his surroundings on the way back to his house.

“It was wonderful that they were able to get so creative,” Morgan said. “They just went above and beyond. I’m so proud of them. All the training we’ve given them paid off because they knew how to utilize it. It couldn’t be a more positive story. It had a wonderful outcome when it could have had a tragic one.”

In addition to autism-specific training, the district also provided several other special-needs courses for drivers and aides over the past school year. A special-needs teacher led these sessions.

“I’m so grateful that we did all that training with them,” said Morgan. “It just paid off in leaps and bounds.”

Quick Thinking Saves Choking Man

By Jennifer Washington

Using CPR training from Gwinnett County Public Schools in Suwanee, Georgia, bus driver Belinda Johnson successfully performed a choking rescue procedure on an elderly man at her second job.

“I was glad I was there to assist,” Johnson said.

At the time of the incident, Johnson had been a bus driver for Gwinnett County Public Schools for 12 years. She began her career in school transportation as a school bus monitor in Delaware and had worked in the industry for nearly 15 years. Despite that experience, this was the first time she had used her training to help save someone’s life.

“With the continuous training that we are given each year from our Gwinnett County transportation department and through our safety and training program, I was able to help save the life of this man,” Johnson said.

While working at Sam’s Club this past Halloween, a customer approached Johnson and told her that her husband was choking. Johnson asked someone to call 911 and immediately began performing abdominal thrusts to clear the man’s obstructed airway.

“The customer at this time lost consciousness, and I had to assist him to the floor,” she said. “I worked with him for approximately 15 to 20 minutes, and after a few attempts, he started to cough.”

The man eventually regained consciousness and thanked Johnson for saving his life. The crowd that had gathered also expressed their appreciation for her unwavering efforts to revive him.

“I was exhausted,” Johnson said with a laugh. “But everybody was calling me a hero.” In addition to the crowd's praise, Johnson received special recognition from supervisors at both of her jobs.

She currently transports disabled students for Gwinnett County Public Schools and won Bus Manager (the district’s term for bus driver) of the Year in 2004 for outstanding achievement. In her spare time, Johnson focuses her efforts on helping and supporting the Children’s Miracle Network and the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Pediatric Hospital.

Instinct Prompts Help for Seizure Victim

By Kelly Roher

Karen Strickland, director of transportation for the School District of Osceola County in Florida, said the employees at her operation are caring, compassionate, and nurturing. Special-needs bus attendant Diana Goldwire personified these traits in January 2010 while she and school bus driver Debbie Sellers were on an afternoon route.

“Diana saw a man fall on the sidewalk and go into a seizure, so she grabbed her gloves, got off the bus, and went to assist him as he went into another seizure,” Strickland said.

Goldwire said she made sure the gentleman was on his side and she checked his airway to make sure it was clear.

“I spoke to him because I wanted to see if he was responsive,” she added. “When he came back from his seizure, I was speaking to him in English, and he couldn’t understand what I was saying, so I started speaking to him in Spanish, and that’s when he responded.”

Sellers called 911, and Goldwire assured the man that he would be OK and stayed with him until EMS arrived.

Goldwire said the emergency response classes she took through the school district’s transportation department and the agency where she works for her second job helped her feel confident she could assist the gentleman, but instinct prompted her to help.

“My youngest daughter had some issues with seizures around eight years ago, so when I saw him, what happened with my daughter came back to me, and I just reacted — I knew that he needed help,” Goldwire said, adding that the man appeared to be homeless.

“That really got to me,” she said. Fortunately, Goldwire learned that the man ended up being fine.

Given the nature of the employees at the School District of Osceola County’s transportation department, Goldwire’s actions that January afternoon weren’t surprising to Strickland — she said they are characteristic of the type of person Goldwire is.

“Like Diana said so eloquently, it was just a reaction,” Strickland said. “She jumped off the bus and did what was in her heart — I think that says a lot for her.”

Chance Meeting Brings Lost Girl Home

By Jennifer Washington

Thanks to her instincts and an auspiciously blocked street, bus driver Rosemarie Fullone of Schaumburg, Illinois, helped safely return a young female student with Down syndrome to her worried parents.

“I shouldn’t get involved sometimes, but my eyes were telling me that something was wrong here,” Fullone says.

After a charter was canceled on the morning of August 4, Fullone headed back to the office and realized her usual route was blocked.

Driving down a different street led her to find a young lady with Down syndrome walking alone on the sidewalk. Fullone’s granddaughter had been diagnosed with the same condition, so she decided to trust her instincts and find out whether the girl had been left behind by another school bus.

A quick call to the dispatcher confirmed that all scheduled pick-ups and drop-offs had been made, so Fullone made a U-turn, only to find the young woman trying to wave down drivers.

“I stopped my bus, I got out of my bus, left my four-way flashers on, put my jacket on, and I walked over to her,” Fullone said.

The young lady was named Elizabeth and was trying to get to McDonald’s. “She just couldn’t change her mind,” Fullone said.

After speaking with her and checking her ID, Fullone contacted Elizabeth’s father, who happened to be out looking for her at the time.

“She just got out of the house and, as her dad said, she’d never done it before,” Fullone said. “Her brother was right there behind him in another car.”

After the incident, Fullone received a heartfelt letter from Elizabeth’s family, as well as thank-you letters from her supervisor and from the president of First Student Inc.

“I think most bus drivers are very observant. People don’t realize it, but we are,” Fullone added. “I don’t think it’s the high-tech things we’re using. It’s the people and how they’re trained.”

At the time of this chance encounter, Fullone had worked as a school bus driver for more than 45 years and still enjoys working with children as much as she did when she started in 1965, she said.

Passion for Cheering Up Cancer Patients

By Kelly Roher

School bus driver Dawn Hill-Fleury said she enjoys volunteering her time to help as many people as possible, but there’s one cause that’s especially close to her heart: helping the kids who attend Camp Ta-Kum-Ta in South Hero, Vermont.

Each year, kids with cancer can take a break from hospital visits and treatments and go to Camp Ta-Kum-Ta for a week. When the camp was founded in 1984, it needed transportation services to get kids from a local hospital to the camp. That’s when Hill-Fleury’s work began.

The camp approached officials at the company she worked for at the time. At the time of reporting, Hill-Fleury had been a school bus driver for more than 30 years, including the last eight with Student Transportation of America (STA).

“They said they would love to help, thinking it would be a one-time thing, and it was so successful and the drivers enjoyed it so much that it’s continued for 26 years,” she said.

In addition to transporting the children every year, Hill-Fleury has served as the camp’s transportation coordinator for 12 years. In this role, she oversees the entire transportation operation, including ensuring there are enough drivers and buses to take the kids where they need to go.

“The drivers I recruit are all volunteer drivers who donate their time. I could not do it without them,” she said.

In November 2009, Hill-Fleury was the recipient of an STA regional heroes award for her dedication to Camp Ta-Kum-Ta. She was also nominated by STA Vermont Regional Manager John Sharrow for the company’s team heroes video.

“Dawn’s efforts for Camp Ta-Kum-Ta are just one of many,” Sharrow said. “She is very active in her church and the local government and is even a justice of the peace. The best example of her character was just a few weeks ago [in November 2010] when she learned of a driver from a nearby location who has a very sick child and needed some assistance. By noon on the same day, she had decorated a large carton and was gathering items for this employee, one whom she has never met. Dawn just loves people.”