Positivity: Principal — Child’s river rescue part of the job
From Rochester, New Hampshire:
Published Jan 28, 2012 at 3:00 am (Updated Jan 27, 2012)
ROCHESTER — Gonic School Principal Gwen Rhodes said her rescue of a child from the Cocheco River on Wednesday morning was no more difficult than what educators do every day.
Rhodes was quick to brush off terms like “hero” in regard to the incident, and has tried to keep things at her school as normal as possible since it happened.
Around 11 a.m. on Wednesday morning, EMS crews were called to the school for a report of a student running into the woods.
But the situation had become much worse than that.
Rhodes said the student, who has autism, got himself into a situation he could not get out of and may not have been aware of the icy danger of the river which runs behind the school. She simply did what she always does, which is look out for the best interest of students, she said.
After running into the woods, the student had crossed one section of the river onto a small peninsula, then onto another section of the river that loops around, Rhodes said.
She and another educator were following the student’s footsteps into the woods while others called 911 when Rhodes said she heard the child scream.
She reached a steep embankment and saw him on the river.
“He looked at me and he said ‘help.’ I said his name and said ‘don’t move’ and just then the ice cracked and at that point he’s going into the water, so I just reacted to get closer to him,” Rhodes recounted during a phone interview on Friday.
Although they could touch ground, the water was cold, and icy, as would be expected even on a warm January day.
She said the only way to get the student out of the water was to work upstream away from the steep embankment to flatter land. She started swimming with the student to where she saw a tree, held on for a moment, and realized no one was coming yet to help them.
“I gave him directions step by step as we carefully worked our way up,” Rhodes said. “He did everything I asked him to do.”
She said she knew she could not stay standing in the water while holding the student up, and began slowly and carefully pushing him out of the water and up the bank. …
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