Teacher rescued from drowning by passer-by, grades saved too
Published: December 18, 2005
A teacher who nearly drowned when his car slipped into an icy creek had one thing on his mind: his students.
Jay Grimes is a senior at Buena Vista University and a student teacher for Cherokee.
He almost died when his 1996 Astro van slid off a slushy county road into a creek north of Galva early Wednesday. It was his final day of student teaching at Washington High School.
45-year-old battled to get out, but he couldn’t. The whole time he says he thought of his students’ grade book that was with him _ a whole semester of the kids’ work.
Then along came Jeremy Lanning, an employee of First Co-op in nearby Alta who also serves as a first responder and firefighter with the Galva Fire Department.
Lanning kicked out the window and pulled Grimes to safety. Another driver that came upon the scene took Grimes to his mother’s home.
Grimes calls Lanning’s effort “heroic” and “selfless.” He says he was lucky to have made it out with just a few cuts.
So are his students. He plans to get the grade book and all the corrected tests back to the high school in the coming week.
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