If you rode a school bus as a child, you may still remember the sounds. The hiss of the door folding open. The rumble of the engine at the curb. The driver calling out your stop.
Maybe your grandchildren ride one now. Every school day, families trust that big yellow bus to carry their kids home.
On a Monday afternoon in October in St. Paul, Minnesota, a busload of middle schoolers needed a little extra help getting there. It came from a young man standing outside his family’s corner store.
What Did He See?
Ebro Ahmed, 27, was taking a break outside the family business in the Dayton’s Bluff neighborhood. He told FOX 9 he was kicking a ball around when a school bus rolled slowly past with its door open.
On board were 19 students from Battle Creek Middle School. The driver was having a medical emergency, according to St. Paul Public Schools.
He started by yelling.
“I started yelling. I didn’t know what to do. The reason I started yelling was to get somebody’s attention,” he said.
No other grown-ups were around to help. “We were right here. No cars around, no adults around, just me alone with the kids,” he said. So he ran toward the bus and hopped aboard.
How Did He Stop It?
His first try did not go to plan. “I wasn’t able to stop it at first, so I threw it in park, and it went in reverse by accident,” he told WCCO.
Surveillance video shows what happened next. Ahmed got the bus into neutral and pulled the parking brake.
Some kids were screaming and others stayed calm, he said. Two girls at the front were a big help, and he tossed his phone and glasses to one of them to hold. He helped the driver while asking students to call 911.
Ahmed credits an unlikely teacher for keeping his head: the TV drama “Grey’s Anatomy.” He said the show prepares you for situations you never pictured yourself in.
Sound familiar? Plenty of us have picked up a useful habit or two from a favorite show.
What Happened Next?
Here is the part worth knowing. Nobody was hurt.
The district told ABC News that paramedics responded and reported no injuries. The students switched to another bus and went home, and counselors checked in with them the next day. The driver was taken to a hospital and has since been released to rest at home.
District officials called Ahmed a hero for helping the driver and making sure every student got home unharmed. He has also received a Humanitarian Hero Award from the Human Development Fund.
Then came a lighter moment. On Thursday, a woman named Sheletta Brundidge organized a surprise for Ahmed: a $1,000 check. She brought in a professional Superman performer to help recognize him.
“Not all superheroes wear capes; some are store clerks,” Brundidge said in an interview with Storyful.
Ahmed says the afternoon on the bus made him think of his own family. “It’s scary. That could’ve been my sister, my brother, my daughter, my son. It could be my little cousin,” he said.
He hopes to reunite with the driver and the driver’s family. He also believes anyone in his place would have done the same thing.
“I really felt like it was my duty,” he said.
Notice how it all started, though. Before the parking brake and the call to 911, there was a bus door standing open and a man who noticed it and yelled. Noticing and speaking up is something any of us can do, from a front porch, a parking lot, or a crosswalk.