A 16-year-old high school student in Texas is being lauded as a hero after she thwarted a knife assault by a 10-year-old boy on the school bus, reports Fox4News.
Police in Rio Vista, located about 60 miles southwest of Dallas, took the boy into custody on Thursday after Alexis Landry literally found herself between the attacker and about 20 other students on the bus.
The incident began when the boy reportedly first threatened at least one other student with knife and then chased or followed three older boys out the rear emergency exit. The school bus driver pulled over to call 911, and at that point the boy with the knife reappeared at the front loading door.
Landry said the boy put his right arm across the chest and with his left hand-held the knife to her throat. Despite panicking, Landry told the other students she wouldn’t let the boy hurt them. The distraction allowed another boy to subdue the attacker until law enforcement arrived.
“They were all in complete panic,” she said. “Some of them were crying and screaming they wanted to go home.”
Security experts have previously told School Transportation News, as well as STN EXPO attendees, that a knife attack on a school bus is a more common reality than the use of other weapons.
The bus reportedly was not equipped with video cameras to document the incident.
