On the afternoon of Sept. 20, second grade teacher Katie Erickson packed up her belongings and got ready to leave Hillcrest Elementary School for the day.
Students had left school as part of an early dismissal day. But Erickson said she felt a strong feeling in her gut telling her to stay in her classroom.
Not soon after Erickson decided to stay, she said, she heard her colleague, Lyanita Layer, shout from the hall, “Does anybody know CPR?”
Erickson said the father of one of her second graders, who lives near the school, was holding his 8-month-old baby and screaming for help. She said when Layer brought the baby to her classroom, the baby was lifeless and turning blue.
Frederick County Public Schools said the baby’s name is Leah, but the family asked that no other names of her relatives be used for this story. The family declined to be interviewed.
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Monica Martinez, an instructional assistant program specialist at Hillcrest, said in an interview that she was in a meeting when she heard someone from the hall call for help. She said she and another staff member hurried to the classroom and thought an adult needed medical attention.
Martinez entered the classroom to see more than 10 staff members crowded around Leah, who had turned purple and was cold.
While other staff members spoke with paramedics over the phone, Layer and Erickson delivered back blows to the baby in an attempt to remove what was blocking her airway.
Martinez said Leah could breathe in a face-down position, but would go limp again as soon she was brought back upright. Erickson said she and Layer let Martinez take over. Martinez kept Leah in a position where she could breathe.
Martinez said a lot of staff members were talking at the time, and she “zoned them out because it’s a lot, you know. I was also already in this emergency mode.”
Erickson said when she was holding Leah during the emergency, she was thinking about her own two children.
“As a mom, I was holding everybody’s baby. I was holding my baby, my neighbor’s baby,” she said. “Anybody who has a child, to me, I was holding everyone’s baby.”
Erickson said she and Layer assured Leah that she was “not going anywhere” and was “going to breathe.”
Martinez, Erickson and the other staff members stabilized the 8-month-old until EMS services arrived.
Martinez said the paramedics immediately gave oxygen to the baby, and she traveled to the hospital in the ambulance with Leah’s father. Martinez said she helped to translate in Spanish between the father and school staff members, doctors and nurses.
Once a translator was assigned to the family at the hospital, Martinez said, she went back to the school and broke down in tears.
“It was really amazing to see how the hospital staff did such an amazing, quick response to the baby,” she said.
Erickson said Leah’s father came to the school for help in an emergency, even after students were dismissed, because he “knew that he could come here.”
“It was a safe place and he was going to get help,” she said. “If anyone was going to be able to save his daughter in these really concerning moments of life and death, he was going to come to this school.”
Erickson said she and Layer similarly cried after Leah was taken to the hospital. She said Leah was taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital shortly after and has made a full recovery, with no lasting damage.
Martinez said the culture of Hillcrest’s staff is to go above and beyond, and that every staff member present during the emergency was trying to get involved.
“I always say Hillcrest is a magical school. For real,” she said. “Honestly, I have never seen a school like this, or a community like this.”
Martinez and Erickson were honored at a Frederick County Board of Education meeting on Wednesday. Layer was scheduled to be honored, as well, but could not attend.
Eric Louérs-Phillips, an FCPS spokesperson, said at the meeting that the “swift and coordinated effort of several Hillcrest staff members” saved Leah’s life and assisted the family.
“We are incredibly grateful for the heroic actions of our Hillcrest colleagues,” he said at the meeting.
Karen Yoho, president of the board, said at the meeting that when the board “got this email and we were asked if we’d be OK with this, through tears, we said yes.”
Martinez and Erickson were called up to receive board pins to commemorate their service to the school district. The pair received a standing ovation from board members and the audience.
“Thank you so much for your quick action and such a positive resolution that just could have been a tragedy,” Yoho said after honoring the two staff members.
In an interview on Thursday, Yoho said Hillcrest staff members, including Glenda Paz Leon, the English Learner secretary for the school, are wonderful and jumped into action quickly.
She said “we were so happy” to honor the staff members at the meeting.
Erickson said the honor is a recognition for all of Hillcrest’s staff members who demonstrated what a strong support the school can be for the community.
“There’s just something about Hillcrest that, unless you’re here, you can’t even really imagine,” she said. “When the school board wanted to recognize us, I felt like it was such an honor and a privilege to be a member of this district.”
Martinez said the most important thing is that Leah, her older sister and the family are OK. She said holding Leah after the incident “felt like an answered prayer.”
“It was like a miracle, honestly,” Martinez said. “It was perfect. This baby was meant to be with us, to stay with us.”
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