SAN ANTONIO – A San Antonio Independent School District bus driver who came to the rescue of an 11-year-old student who was attacked by a dog on her way home from school is being honored.
Mayor Ron Nirenberg is scheduled to honor Carmen Medina with the "Compassionate San Antonio Award" on Wednesday.
Medina has been an SAISD bus driver for nearly nine years, and she said she loves her job because of her students.
In November, on the way to Longfellow Middle School to pick up some of those students, Medina saw a loose dog barking and following a young girl.
"I could tell she was scared," Medina said.
Medina said she watched closely, and when the dog attacked the 11-year-old student, she sprung into action.
"(The student) started to run," Medina said. "When she started to run, (the dog) got her, knocked her down and bit her. I put my bus in reverse, which of course, you're not supposed to do that because there are too many blind spots, but I reversed, and when I pulled the brake, it must have scared the dog."
Medina brought the girl, who was bitten on the leg, onto the bus and had dispatch call an ambulance.
Medina drove the student back to Longfellow Middle School, where an ambulance picked her up and took her to University Hospital.
"She was crying," Medina said. "I told her it was going to be OK. She’d be all right."
Medina was told the student is OK now and the staff and administration at Longfellow wanted to honor her for helping out.
Medina said she was just doing her job.
"I think I did something that anybody would do," she said. "At least, I would hope that because that’s the right thing to do and that’s someone’s child, someone's grandchild, and I would want the same thing for my grandchildren and my sons. So I just did what is the right thing to do.”