A school bus driver in Oneida County died Jan. 5 after suffering a medical emergency and crashing into a snowbank, reported Syracuse News.
The crash was reported around 12:25 p.m. at the intersection of state routes 31 and 365 in the town of Verona, police said. Troopers confirmed that no students were on the school bus at the time of the incident.
State police spokesperson Trooper Jennifer Jiron said the bus driver was traveling west on Route 31 when he experienced a medical emergency and collapsed. The bus then left the roadway and came to rest on a snowbank.
Two other adults, a second bus driver and a school bus aide, were also on board. Neither was reportedly injured. Police said the two attempted to stop the bus, called 911 and began CPR on the driver.
The driver was transported to Oneida Health Hospital, where they were pronounced dead. The driverβs identity has not yet been released. First Student reportedly owns the school bus and was operating under contract with the Rome City School District.
Authorities reported no damage to the bus. The incident remains under investigation.
A routine ride home from school last month quickly turned into a moment of heroism when a Sand Springs school bus made an unexpected stop after the driver experienced a medical emergency. Thanks to the quick-thinking of a 9-year-old student, help arrived promptly and all students remained safe, reported News on 6.
It was a normal school bus ride for fourth-grader Kane Lee was until he noticed something was wrong. After the bus driver pulled over, Kane walked to the front of the vehicle and immediately realized the driver was unable to speak and needed help.
βShe couldnβt talk, and I could tell by her face and stuff that she needed me to call someone,β Kane told local news reporters. βSo, I called 911.β
Despite feeling scared, Kane stayed by the driverβs side until emergency responders arrived. βI didnβt want her to, like, pass out when I went back to my seat,β he said.
Kane also reportedly helped manage the situation inside the bus, comforting younger, frightened students alarmed by the sudden stop.
βLittle kids were scared, so I gave them hugs,β he said. βSome of my other friends was quieting people down.β
All the students were safe, and a replacement bus driver arrived to complete the route. While the district had not released details about the original bus driverβs condition at this report, officials said they notified parents about the incident and praised the students for their calm and responsible actions.
District leaders specifically commended Kane for his bravery and presence of mind during the emergency.
βI just felt good that I could help,β Kane told local news reporters.
FRISCO, Texas β Michele Gay turned tragedy into teaching, as she recounted the loss of her daughter, Josephine, in the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting at the opening keynote during the Transporting Students with Disabilities and Special Needs (TSD) Conference.
Now the co-founder and executive director of Safe and Sound Schools, Gay discussed Friday afternoon her personal journey and how she overcame a point in her life when she couldnβt see a future after the murder of her daughter, 19 of her classmates, and six school staff members. What helped her, she said, was rethinking school safety with another mother, Alyssa Parker, who also lost her daughter in the shooting.
Gay, who started her career as a special education teacher at age 21, said she had no training for how to keep children safe. She noted that the school district and those of the companies at the conference have something stated in their mission statements relating to safety. Yet, many forget to mention the how.
βOur Super Bowl is safe kids at school,β Gay said as she showed a chart outlining the framework for a comprehensive school safety plan and development.
She noted that if a child has a monitor or aide, often those school employees are viewed as the sole safety plan. However, she cautioned that mentality as when it comes to safety, βWeβre all in this together.β
School safety is everybodyβs job, and itβs the core of what people do. She explained that safety is more than procedures owned by one team and it must be embedded across all aspects of school districts. She advised rethinking how safety is taught, and said that it should be developmentally appropriate, low-stress and skill-based.
Donβt DIY safety, she said, adding that itβs important to coordinate and comply. Be vocal about safety and work through codes and compliance with experts and partners. A properly secured door, for example, is a simple but powerful layer of protection. Gay asked those in the room to be loud when it comes to student safety to and represent what they know.
Keep it simple and non-sensational was another message she encouraged throughout her keynote. Use clear, action-oriented language and minimal supporting icons, she said. Avoid evocative images or drama that create trauma; focus on behaviors and steps kids can take.
She broke down the key considerations for creating a safety plan.
Ask the experts: Who are the experts on your students and your community? In terms of transportation, she said itβs usually the school bus drivers who know the children the best.
All-Hazards Approach: Be prepared for anything. Comprehensive planning, skills and knowledge building, and generalization of skills.
Teaching before Training: Equipping students, building confidence and trust, setting up for successful drills and exercises, building the life skills of safety. Gay said itβs not about pop quizzes, but instead talking to students beforehand on what the training entails and why the bus is built a certain way, for example.
Skills for Life: Tools in the toolbox. Increases safety across settings and circumstances.
No Drama, No Trauma: Focus on skills and behaviors. Skip the sensorial and sensational. Avoid evocative images. Consider your words. What do you want students to do if theyβre in danger? She noted itβs not just about doing an evacuation drill, but instead talking about the behavior and steps that students need to take.
Words Matter: Keep it simple. Use action-oriented words. Avoid dramatic words and phrases. Support text with simple images (icons, symbols) and keep them to three. Like Stop, drop and roll. Everyone remembers this saying, but how many actually had to do it?
If you canβt get on board with all those considerations, where do we start, she asked. She said itβs about meeting students where they are. She discussed the ladder of levels, where students can be on different rings based on their age and abilities. Use the ladder to tailor expectations and training intensity, Gay advised.
In terms of training exceptional students, she said standard plans often miss students with disabilities or unique needs. Her daughter Josphine had many exceptional abilities, as she called them, she was diagnosed with autism and later with global apraxia and apraxia of speech. Gay advised creating individualized, portable plans so any staff (including substitutes) know the supports required.
The inclusive safety planning six-step process includes:
James Page, director of transportation for Putnam City Schools in Oklahoma, shared with STN following the keynote that he found the emergency plans for students with disabilities as his biggest takeaway.
βIt was something that in the 20-plus years that Iβve been in school transportation that Iβve never thought about,β Page said. βIt was eye-opening to see that. So as soon as I hit the ground Wednesday morning back at my district, thatβs going to be one of the first things that Iβm going to be working with my SPED department about. Sitting down and coming up with evacuation plans for our special education students.β
Gay also discussed the importance of transportation being involved in the student-parent reunification process and emergency planning. She recommended attendees engage in tabletop exercises, something that can be done on the school bus. For instance, ask students if the school bus was to catch fire right now, what would they do?
She noted itβs important to communicate with families and staff during crises, planning out how to speak with one another. She advised against one off, dramatic messaging for kids and instead recommended repeated, skill-based learning.
Overall, Gay advised attendees to start small and collaborate. Gather your team, introduce simple action words and icons, run low-stress practice, then expand it to scale, she said. Action checklists include forming a multi-disciplinary team (including transportation), inventory studentsβ access/functional needs, draft quick individual safety plans, practice tabletop scenarios on buses and standardize simple action-based messaging for each developmental level.
Milwaukee Public Schools has rolled out a new emergency protocol designed to standardize and simplify responses to emergencies.Β Β
Staff, families, students and the broader community were tragically reminded of the need for such protocol when, just weeks ago, a gunman opened fire during a student Mass at a Minneapolis school, killing two children and injuring more than a dozen others.Β
Shannon Jones, MPS director of school safety and security, said shooting incidents like these prompt staff to reflect and assess.
βI think after every incident that has happened nationwide, actually worldwide, we kind of look at where we are and try to take in consideration the βwhat ifs,ββ Jones said. βOverall, itβs about the safety of the kids.βΒ
Kevin Hafemann, left, and Shannon Jones, safety personnel at Milwaukee Public Schools, discuss the school districtβs new Standard Response Protocol. Hafemann shows the emergency-related materials previously available at MPS, saying that the new material is easier to use in an actual emergency. (Devin Blake / Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service)
Whatβs new?
On Sept. 2, the first day of the school year at most MPS schools, students were introduced to the Standard Response Protocol, said Kevin Hafemann, emergency operations manager for the district.Β
The protocol was developed by the βI Love U Guysβ Foundation, a national nonprofit that provides free safety resources to schools.Β
Posters explaining each response are displayed in classrooms at MPSβ roughly 150 schools.Β
Those responses are: Hold, Secure, Lockdown, Evacuate and Shelter.Β
Five emergency responses
Hereβs what each response entails for students and teachers.Β
Hold: Students remain in their room or area, while hallways are kept clear. While holding, normal activities can continue.Β
Secure: Teachers lock outside doors to protect people inside buildings. Although awareness should be heightened, normal activities can continue.Β
Lockdown: Teachers clear hallways, lock doors to individual rooms and turn off the lights. Students hide and keep quiet.Β
Evacuate: Students move to an announced location, leaving personal items if necessary.Β
Shelter: Depending on the hazard announced by the teacher, students respond with the relevant strategy. For example, if thereβs an earthquake, students should drop, cover and hold.
Easier in an actual emergency
βThe neat thing about the SRP (Standard Response Protocol), itβs very simple. Thereβs only five, so itβs an all-hazards approach,β Hafemann said.Β
The posters replaced a much more detailed flipbook.Β
βThis is where we came from,β Hafemann said, holding up the flipbook. βVery great, excellent information. But during a crisis, you lose your fine motor skills. Youβre not going to have time when youβre scared to be able to read what to do.βΒ
An English and Spanish Standard Response Protocol poster, created from βI Love U Guysβ Foundation materials, shows the five recommended responses to an emergency: Hold, Secure, Lockdown, Evacuate, Shelter. (Photo by Devin Blake from materials provided by the βI Love U Guysβ Foundation)
Many community partners were involved in bringing the new protocol to MPS, Hafemann said. This includes the Milwaukee Police Department and the Milwaukee Fire Department.
Fire Chief Aaron Lipski said the collaboration has helped MPS avoid βreinventing a wheel on something that might not work in the real world.βΒ Β Β
For example, he said, itβs important for staff to know that during a fire, one of the safest areas of a building is the stairwell.Β
βThrough good incident command and communication with folks at the building, that gives us time for them to go, βHey, we got a kid in a motorized wheelchair on the west stairwell, third floor.β That becomes a major priority for us,β Lipski said.Β
Some emergency protocol details cannot be shared publicly for safety reasons, but families are informed whenever changes directly affect school procedures, said Missy Zombor, president of the Milwaukee Board of School Directors.Β Β
Whatβs the same?
Although the Standard Response Protocol is new for the district, it is part of the districtβs ongoing Emergency Operations Plan.
The plan is an overarching safety framework mandated by state law, requiring school districts to coordinate prevention, mitigation, response and recovery efforts across the district.Β
A range of emergency drills are also mandated: monthly fire drills; at least two tornado or hazard drills annually; one βschool violenceβ or βlockdownβ drill annually.Β
MPS also conducts defibrillator drills and, for younger students, bus evacuation drills each year.
What steps can be taken now?
Families should review the Standard Response Protocol poster with their schoolchildren, Hafemann said.Β
βJust have those discussions with children about these and that theyβre aware of what to do,β he said.
Lipski advised reviewing βthe basic stuffβ as well.Β
βThey probably do well to review basic βstranger dangerβ stuff,β he said. βYes, we want you to follow instructions that your teachers are telling you, but if you need to leave the building because thereβs an emergency and you get separated, make sure you find an adult that you are familiar with.β
As children get a little bit older, Lipski added, it would be helpful for them to get CPR training and some basic first aid.Β
βIt just reinforces that, βHey, you know what β helping people is a thing you can do,ββ Lipski said.
For more information
Families can update their contact information in the online Parent Portal to effectively use SchoolMessenger, the districtβs emergency communication tool.
If families have safety and security-related questions, students can reach out to their respective teachers first, while parents can contact Jones or Stephen Davis, media relations manager for MPS, Davis said.Β
MPS also provides some opportunities for input from families through school-based councils, district surveys, board meetings and community listening sessions, Zombor said.Β
The Wisconsin Department of Justice maintains a statewide portal for reporting safety concerns. People can also call the tipline at 800-697-8761.
Families and students can access key safety and security documents on the MPS website.
Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership betweenΒ CatchLight LocalΒ andΒ Report for America.
A disturbing incident on an Orleans Parish school bus in Louisiana has left a longtime school bus monitor hospitalized with multiple injuries after she was allegedly attacked by a high school student and the studentβs mother, reported News Channel 10.
The incident reportedly occurred Aug. 21 and was caught on video, involving a McDonogh 35 High School student and her mother physically assaulting school bus monitor Tamika Jackson. The footage aired by News Channel 10 indicates the mother striking Jackson and then her daughter joining the violent altercation.
Jacksonβs husband, Johnny Jackson told reporters his wife was transported to the emergency room with severe injuries, including bite marks on her face and thumbs, scratches and a deep gash across her face.
βThey pulled her hair out. They bit her in her face, on her lips, on her thumbs,β he said.
Images shown by News Channel 10 support his descriptions of the injuries.
According to the article, Johnny Jackson said the confrontation began after his wife instructed the student not to sit in the last two rows of the bus, an area she suspected students had been using inappropriately, potentially to perform lewd acts. The student, who was not identified in this writing, allegedly called her mother, who then boarded the bus at confronted Jackson, resulting in the violent assault.
Despite her injuries and being on duty at the time, Jackson was reportedly issued a Municipal Court summons by the New Orleans Police Department for disturbing the peace.
Her husband expressed outrage, saying, βItβs insane knowing my wife was at work when this happened, and yet sheβs being treated like she was part of a fight.β
NOPD has not filed a police report at this time, citing a lack of video evidence. Officers reportedly told the family they are treating the matter as a βroutine fightβ until the footage is reviewed.
In response to the incident, InspireNOLA Charter Schools, which oversees McDonogh 35, stated it is conducting an active investigation and emphasized that the safety of students and staff is a top priority. Community members and staff have called for a thorough investigation and accountability following the attack.
STN EXPO hosted a visceral experience to train student transporters in emergency school bus evacuations. A bus loaned by Washoe County Schools was set up in the parking lot of the Peppermill Hotel Resort and filled with fog machines for attendees to traverse as they attempted to βrescueβ a predetermined number of dolls standing in for students.
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Image by Nashawn Craig / 0312 Photography.
A school bus parked in the Peppermill Resort Casino, home of STN EXPO West in Reno, Nevada, on Aug. 5, 2025.
A school bus parked in the Peppermill Resort Casino, home of STN EXPO West in Reno, Nevada, on Aug. 5, 2025.
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