When a Whitewater Middle student was in distress, Misty Haggerty acted fast to save a life by performing the Heimlich maneuver.

Haggerty has previously been a substitute, and she has been employed at WMS as a paraprofessional in a self-contained classroom this year. She was with a student who began choking on bread during lunch. Haggerty knew something was wrong when the non-verbal student began tapping her on the hand.

She learned the Heimlich maneuver when she worked at a juvenile detention facility in Texas, and she had to perform it before on her own daughter, who is now an adult. Since she had seen the signs before, she immediately knew how to act.

“Mrs. Haggerty wanted the student to be okay, and she didn’t want for somebody’s baby to be harmed,” praised WMS Principal Brian Butera.