Last week, three first graders at Lakeview Elementary School in Colonial Heights, Virginia, acted fast when their teacher, Madison Swift, suddenly started choking during a lesson. She’d been eating while working with a student when she realized she couldn’t breathe and the children noticed right away that something was wrong.
Each child reacted differently to get help. Dereck Contreras-Franco pressed the emergency call button and shouted with classmates that Swift was choking, while six-year-old Bryson Doss ran from the room to find another teacher. Kolton Hersh, who was seated next to Swift, bent her forward and performed back blows, which she said dislodged the food.
The teacher later said the boys truly saved her life, adding that the trust they had built made them respond without hesitation. At the end of the week, the three students received small treasures from her classroom box to reward them for their life-saving actions.