According to Timpanogos Middle School Principal Jim Judd, on May 12, a student at the school had a seizure while climbing a flight of concrete stairs.
“And then while all that's happening, you've got about 500 kids milling around this student trying to get to class because it happened right at the end of the lunch period,” he said.
A student reached him first and got him to sit down on the stairs.
“The first kid, if he hadn't physically made that kid sit down, he would have fallen over backwards on that staircase,” Judd said.
Student Will Shallenberger was also nearby. He sprinted off to find the nearest teacher.
“I knew they'd have like a protocol for that. And they would keep the students clear away from the student,” he said.
Shallenberger was right about that. Judd said the school has an emergency alert system which notifies all staff via a phone app whenever there’s an imminent safety issue.
“We could call a classroom lockdown immediately to get kids clear so we could deal with this kid medically," Judd said. "But it takes a teacher to initiate that. And so once that kid had the teacher on site, then we could immediately get the halls cleared.”
Two other students sat with the student having the seizure until the teacher arrived to prevent other kids from bumping into him. Judd said the teacher was there in about 30 to 45 seconds.
“But it was these four kids that kept the kids safe and made it possible that the adults were even aware, it happened so quickly,” he said.
Judd said the student who had the seizure is doing well and was back in school the next day. But the outcome could have been very different without the intervention of his four classmates.
“After watching the event on our school cameras, I believe they potentially saved the kid's life,” he said.
For their quick action, Wasatch County Sheriff Jared Rigby presented the four with the sheriff’s office Good Samaritan Award. Shallenberger said he was honored to be acknowledged for his good deed.
“It was nice to be recognized for that. But just to know I was doing the right thing,” Shallenberger said.
Judd said this example gives him hope for the future.
“These kids in a few years are going to be the next generation of citizens that are solving the complex problems our community has," Judd said.
