Bus driver on Santa's nice list for saving boy's life

When autism awareness advocate Sheletta Brundidge heard about the Roseville bus driver who pulled a non-verbal 4-year-old boy from a local lake, she wanted everyone to know the story and broke from her busy schedule to meet the hero herself.

“The Lord laid it on my heart to reschedule all my meetings and leave my house to go to Maplewood to bless a woman I've never met,” Brundidge said.

Twin Cities resident Mebal Kaanyi is the bus driver who was on the job, driving her route for Roseville area schools on Nov. 20, when she saw a 4-year-old boy run toward Lake Owasso. She said when he pushed the fence, and it opened, her heart skipped a beat. “I never swam a day in my life,” Kaanyi said.

Still, Kaanyi went into the water just as it reached the boy’s neck, and he was struggling. “I grabbed his hand and thought, thank goodness.”

The Ramsey County Sheriff’s Department said medics at the scene transported the boy to a local hospital, where his mother met him, and he has since recovered.

Brundidge is very familiar with what happens when an autistic child gets out of the house. “I’m a mama with a mouth and a mission to help other parents because I don’t want any mother to have to bury her child.”

Brundidge has three children diagnosed with autism and knows how hard it is to protect kids on the spectrum who, studies show, are 160 times more likely to drown due to their tendency to wander and attraction to water. 

Brundidge surprised Kaanyi on Nov. 25 while she was at job training for Schmitty & Sons Bus Company in Maplewood. Brundidge brought Santa, a bouquet of flowers from neighboring business Hilltop Dental, and a check for $1000 made out to Kaanyi.

“It’s my job to make sure that awareness is made and that awards are given out and that locks are given away,” Brundidge said.

Over the last two years, Brundidge has traveled the country giving away interior combination locks to families of children with autism, in response to the deaths of young children who wandered away from home and drowned.

While presenting Kaanyi with the check, Brundidge emphasized how critical her actions were.

“I want you to know that you are a hero,” Brundidge told Kaanyi. “You saved that child. You should walk around here with your chest out and your head held high. Do you know how precise God had to be that you were in this spot to see that child at that moment? God knew that he could trust you with that child’s life.”

Kaanyi said she will save the money and use it to support her daughter, who was on the bus when she saved the young boy, and is not surprised by the love and support her mom is receiving. “Every day she tells mama, ‘I want to be like you,’" said Kaanyi.