has sisters and nieces who are among the district’s pool of 150 drivers. “We know our exposure is there for strange things,” added Gayaldo of the state’s fifth-largest school district. “But we also have outstanding supervisors who are all state instructors, and this incident upped


our game to step up and be more creative. You never know what the emergency is going to be, but the key is to be prepared.” As a result, this month the district is complet- ing the installation of three-camera systems in all 150 buses to obtain a better view of incidents


occurring in side the bus, including the stairwell, which was out of view that fateful, late-summer day five years ago. “Te magnitude of what she was dealing with is really hard for me,” said Gayaldo. “She did an amaz- ing job. Honestly, we feel we have the best.” 


Cathy Snow was honored at NAPT by Blue Bird Corporation for attempting to save the life of a baby who was shot in the head by home-invasion robbers in Sacramento in 2007.


“Come on baby, come


on. Stay with me,” she re- peatedly says over the radio while holding paper towels to the wound, which she describes as a “major gash.” Snow won’t discover until later that it is a gun- shot wound, and that the pressure she was applying was keeping brain matter from spilling out. “Oh, please hurry up


guys!” she pleads, exhorting emergency crews to hurry.


“Oh, God!” Still, Snow has the


presence of mind to ask the dispatcher to assign a sub driver for her upcoming afternoon high school route. She even gives a description of the man who handed her the baby, as police had already received reports of gunshots in the area. About eight minutes later, the video shows the first police car pull up, joined shortly by others and, finally, the paramedics. Another


eight minutes transpire, and the ambulance can be seen leaving the scene, on it’s way to the hospital. It was only then that Snow realized the baby had been shot, and she would later learn he didn’t make it. It was also only a matter of time before the media started to report the incident. “When it first happened,


we did our best to keep (Snow’s) name out of it. We didn’t want anyone to think she was a witness,” said Jill Gayaldo, director of transportation for Elk Grove Unified. “But she hasn’t missed a day of work since then.” Gayaldo said it’s her belief that Elk Grove has the “very best drivers,” but no amount of training can prepare anyone for such a tragedy. It helps that Snow’s husband, Jim, is an Elk Grove transportation supervisor and state-certi- fied driver trainer. He also


OCT 20–25, 2012 • THE SHOW REPORTER 9


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24