"It Had to Be God": Bus Driver and Monitor Save Kids from Floodwaters Using Seat Belts
“It had to be God to send me that way because I don’t normally go that way,” Simone Edmond told KDFW in Dallas.
Edmond is the Dallas Independent School District bus driver whose quick actions saved the lives of two children nearly swept away by floodwaters.
The boy and girl were desperately clinging to trees when Edmond and the bus monitor, Tekendria Valentine (who shot video of the rescue), tied seatbelts together for them to grab. Neighbors then pitched in and helped deliver the children to safety.
KDFW reporter, David Sentendrey, observed that “teamwork makes the dream work” as illustrated by this miraculous rescue. Even though the bus driver and monitor haven’t worked together very long, they are now bonded by their shared efforts to save young lives.
Edmond is convinced there was divine intervention involved in making this happen. Their bus was empty but they were pressed into extra duty to pick up a student who had missed an earlier bus.
This student lived on another route, so the two were in territory they don’t normally cover. The student they were sent to retrieve wasn’t there.
“We were just in the area, I was like maybe it was a waste of time, but then when we seen what we seen, I was like maybe that was God putting us there in that area for that reason,” Valentine said.
The children were caught in the record-breaking floodwater with their father trying to help them. They called 911 but could see there was no time.
That’s when they thought it might work to use seatbelts to help the rescue. Their bus was uniquely equipped with removable straps for wheelchairs.
According to KXAS, Edmond, who has been a bus drive for 20 years, said, “I’ve driven in snow, rain, sleet, but never a flood like this.”
The children were very appreciative and the boy can be heard on the video saying, “I want to give you a hug!”
The rescue is even more remarkable considering neither of the women knows how to swim! “‘We were like taking a chance ourselves,’ said Edmond.”
The teamwork of the bus driver and monitor are credited with saving the children and very likely, their father, but they don’t consider themselves heroes. “‘I don’t really consider myself a hero,’ Edmond told the school district.
“‘I just feel like I was doing what I needed to do at the time, and if I had to, I would do it all over again.'”
Sentendrey observed that “Coincidentally, Dallas ISD’s bus lot already has a sign that reads: ‘Heroes Work Here.'” Now, we all know at least two of their names.
