Hero of the Day: Maryland School Bus Driver Pulls 20 Children From Burning Vehicle

Talk about going above and beyond: A College Park, Maryland, school bus driver was hailed for her heroic actions after the bus she was driving caught fire Monday.

Meanwhile, I was patting myself on the back just for getting my kids out the door to school with most of their clothes on.

The driver, Reneita Smith, earned her superhero cape by calmly extracting all 20 Glenarden Woods Elementary School students out of the burning bus.

“A big THANK YOU to our school bus driver Reneita Smith who just saved 20 elementary school kids from a bus fire that completely destroyed the bus,” Fazlul Kabir posted on Facebook. “Reneita [not only] took each one of the 20 kids from the bus one by one, but also went into the empty bus again to check if everyone was out, while it was still burning.”

“I am a mom of two kids,” Kabir recalled Smith saying as the bus burned. “It’s my job to save them.”

If your children are in danger, that’s precisely who you want protecting them: A MAMA BEAR. Well-done, Ms. Smith! Well-done, indeed.