Teachers Spring Into Action After Mom Goes Into Labor in School Bathroom: 'A Moment of Pride'
A team of Texas teachers is being praised for their quick thinking after they jumped into action to help a student’s mother who unexpectedly went into labor in a school bathroom.
Janet Karina Soto-Rodriguez was at IDEA Bluff Springs School on Jan. 22 with her husband, Andres, at an award ceremony for their second-grader Luigiani when her bundle of joy decided it was time to stage her big arrival.
She took refuge in the gym bathroom, and was soon found and helped by teachers Valentina Davalos, Amberlynn Balli, and Erica Beverly, Principal Virginia Callaway wrote in a statement on Facebook.
Davalos, a second-grade math teacher, said she knew what was happening right away when she saw Andres standing outside the door.
“When I saw him at the bathroom door and saw his face, I just said, ‘Oh no, the baby is here,’” she told Good Morning America.
The trio quickly took charge as each tackled a different role: Balli helped translate the 911 operator for the couple, as they speak Spanish, and Davalos helped care for the baby, while Beverly listened to the operator’s instructions and tended to Soto-Rodriguez.
“There were a lot of things that needed to take place in a matter of split seconds,” Beverly, a support teacher, told GMA. “It now seems like a huge thing that we did, but at the time, we didn’t think of it like that.”
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Added Balli, a second-grade reading teacher: “We wanted to make the delivery as comfortable and beautiful and private as possible no matter the circumstances.”
Callaway wrote that both mom and baby were “healthy and recovering from the adventure” in the hospital, where they were taken soon after the impromptu delivery.
Though the teachers went right back to their classrooms after the birth, they did stop by the hospital the next day to pay Soto-Rodriguez and her daughter — whom she named Andrea — a visit.
“Our biggest focus over the next 24 hours was, ‘Did we do everything right to make sure they were safe?’” said Beverly. “We thought about that until we were able to see them the next day. Once we knew they were safe and healthy, that was a moment of pride for us.”
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Soto-Rodriguez called her newborn an “extremely brave girl” who came out “ready to tackle this world.”
Once she’s ready to tackle college, she’ll have a little help — Callaway revealed that little Andrea will have a full-ride college scholarship when she graduates from IDEA Public Schools, presumably as part of the class of 2038.
“The work we do with all of your children brings us such joy each day,” Callaway wrote. “We are over-the-moon to have this young scholar join our family.”
