Kentucky educator credited with saving student’s life

BOURBON COUNTY, Ky. (WKYT) - An administrator at Paris Independent Schools is being credited with saving a student’s life.

Assistant Principal Rob McCann stepped in when he noticed a student choking during lunch on Wednesday.

Rob McCann has spent 18 years in education and was just welcomed to Paris High School this past summer. For 12 years before that, he served as a lifeguard throughout the bluegrass.

“I was the assistant aquatics director for The Pavilion in Georgetown, and then I was the assistant aquatics director for Fallings Springs, which is in Versailles,” said McCann.

On Wednesday, he put that past experience to use in an emergency during lunch.

“She initially made the kind of international ‘I’m choking’ signal to her friends, and I don’t think they realized what was going on,” McCann said.

McCann says the student was choking on her food, her face was getting discolored and she came up to him making that same signal.

“And then I did the Heimlich maneuver three times, and then she started to loosen up,” said McCann.

Fellow faculty members praised their assistant principal as brave, selfless and even heroic. However, McCann says what unfolded in that cafeteria Wednesday was simply part of doing his job.

“Teachers are changing lives in classrooms all the time,” said McCann. “This particular instance was just another opportunity to act.”

McCann says the significance of that opportunity has slowly sunk in and he’s feeling the love from the people of Paris, but most important to him is that his student is safe and well.

Superintendent Stephen McCauley posted on Facebook about the incident, saying their school is lucky to have him as a leader and a role model.

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