A group of middle school students in Mississippi proved that when life gives you a swerving bus, you grab the wheel. The incident occurred Wednesday on a highway in Kiln, Mississippi, shortly after the Hancock Middle School bus departed with driver Leah Taylor at the helm. Taylor suffered an asthma attack and lost consciousness, leaving 12-year-old sixth-grader Jackson Casnave to notice the bus careening and take control. "I didn't have time to process my emotions," Casnave told the Associated Press, presumably because he was busy not letting his classmates become highway statistics. "I just wanted to make sure that nobody got hurt."
Fellow sixth-grader Darrius Clark attempted to assist by stomping on the brakes, which - thanks to the bus's air brake system - nearly launched him through the windshield. "I didn't know it had air brakes - so when I clicked the brakes it about threw me out the windshield," Clark said, adding a new definition to "surprise physics lesson." The duo managed to slow the bus and park it safely in the median. Clark's 13-year-old sister Kayleigh called 911 amid a cacophony of screaming students. "I was scared," she recalled. "But also I had to help."
Meanwhile, 15-year-old Destiny Cornelius spotted Taylor's nebulizer and administered the treatment, while 13-year-old McKenzy Finch cradled Taylor's head and answered her ringing phone to inform the school district. Emergency responders arrived and treated Taylor, who has since recovered. The crew was celebrated at a school pep rally Friday. "I'm very proud of them," Taylor said. "I couldn't ask for any of my other students than my students on my bus. I love every single one of them. I'm gonna think of how they saved my life."