St. Paul ‘school bus hero’ reunites with students he saved

St. Paul ‘school bus hero’ reunites with students he saved Ashley Halbach KSTP Ebro Ahmed, known as the "school bus hero," meets the students on the bus at special celebration on Nov. 11. (KSTP) A St. Paul man known as the “school bus hero” reunited with the students he helped save during a school bus emergency in October. 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS anchor Kevin Doran was at Battle Creek Middle School on Wednesday when Ebro Ahmed met the students for the first time since he sprang into action when a bus driver had a medical emergency on Oct. 19. St. Paul Public Schools held a “Bus Hero Celebration” to honor Ahmed with a community hero award and met the middle schoolers who were on that bus. RELATED: St. Paul man jumps onto moving school bus after driver’s medical emergency, saving 19 kids It has been a busy few weeks for the 22-year-old since 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS first shared his story. Since then, St. Paul city leaders and first responders recognized his actions, a civic group gave him $1,000 for his bravery, and he’s done various interviews for newspapers, network news, and talk shows. “Yeah, it’s been crazy, tiring. You know, but I’m just trying to take everything in. You know, not everybody’s going to be a celebrity randomly for a few weeks, so I’m enjoying it. I’m happy I got to see the kids again today. Been looking forward to that,” Ahmed said. RELATED: Good Samaritan receives $1K gift after hopping on moving school bus to save 19 children RELATED: St. Paul honors hero who stopped runaway school bus, saving 19 students He was standing outside Bricks Snacks and Tobacco in the Dayton’s Bluff neighborhood when he noticed something wrong. “And I saw a bus roll past me with the doors open. And I saw the bus driver seizing up,” Ahmed said. He jumped into the moving bus, stopped it, called to get the driver help and made sure the 19 students stayed calm. “So Ebro, at Battle Creek we work every day to teach our students to be prompt, prepared and polite. On October 19th you showed us what that truly means to be prepared,” Battle Creek Middle School Principal Oulia Yang said at the celebration. Ahmed told the students he was just doing the right thing. “I just want to say, first of all, I’m not a hero. I feel like that’s what I should have done. Second of all, I hope you guys do me a favor, and I want you guys to just dream as big as you can. And don’t let anybody tell you you can’t do anything,” Ahmed said. Students said the celebration fit what Ahmed did for them and their driver. Students talked about his actions: “He’s a hero because he saved our bus driver and he saved us too,” a student said. “Because he noticed our bus driver was having a medical emergency and he stopped the bus,” another student said. “Because he jumped on the bus and he didn’t have to do that, he chose to do that,” a student said. The school gave him a special award at the event. “We extend our sincere gratitude for your outstanding citizenship and care for the St. Paul Public Schools community. Thank you, Ebro.” Yang said as she handed him the community hero award. The school bus driver who had the medical emergency is okay and will likely return to work as a bus monitor.