Girl Scout's Quick Thinking Saves Students on Bay City School Bus
January 26, 2010
Sometimes, all it takes for a group of people to respond to an emergency is one person taking action. Sometimes, one person's courage spurs others, changing them from stunned, immobilized observers to
heroes.
That's what happened last April when Girl Scout Katlyn
Scovill's quick response saved a school bus filled with students. Katlyn, now a senior at Bay City Central High School and a member of Girl Scout Ambassador Troop 50549, was seated right behind the driver on the way to the Bay City Schools Career Center. The bus began weaving all over the road and ran up over a curb. When the bus driver slumped over the steering wheel, Katlyn took action.
She stepped on the brake pedal and tried to shift the
gears from drive to park. Unfortunately, the gear shift
was configured differently than a car's, so she accidentally shifted into reverse, but kept her foot on the brake. Amid cries from panicked riders on the crowded bus, Katlyn kept the vehicle from rolling backward. Seeing her actions, five other students came forward to help. One managed to shift the bus's gears into neutral, another found and set the emergency brake. Two more students called 911 and attended to the driver, while a fifth led anxious riders out through the emergency exit.
Katlyn thinks her classmates responded so quickly
because many of them knew each other so well from
being in marching band together. The six students were all honored by the Bay City Public Schools, the Bay City Fire Department and the City of Bay City, which proclaimed June 2, 2009, as "Katlyn Scovill Day."
Katlyn, the daughter of Shirlee and Roger Scovill, is still
working on getting her driver's license. Katlyn's dad has
joked that she should apply for a job as a substitute bus driver!
