School Bus Driver Builds Wheelchair Ramp for Special-Needs Student

HAMILTON, Ohio — A school bus driver here went above and beyond to help a mother and her daughter, who uses a wheelchair, by building her a wheelchair ramp, the Journal-News reports.

Bob Thacker, who has driven a school bus for Hamilton City School District for 10 years, saw one of his students, Katelynn, and her mother, Tonya Uhl, fall to the ground, with Katelynn suffering an injury to her mouth, as Uhl tried to push her in the wheelchair up the steps to her home, according to the newspaper. Thacker ran out of his bus to assist during the January incident, and decided that he would do more to help them, the Journal-News reports.

Since the Uhl family had been unable to get assistance in paying for and installing a wheelchair ramp, Thacker built one for the seventh-grader. He constructed a wooden, detachable, and portable ramp, he told the newspaper, and, added Joni Copas, a spokeswoman for the district, paid for it as well. Thacker was also able to get another Hamilton resident to donate an electric, motorized wheelchair to Katelynn.  

Becky Goosey, the district’s director of transportation, praised Thacker for going the extra mile for the mother and daughter, according to the Journal-News.

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