Photo by Daniel Jackovino East Orange Community Charter School third-grader Robert Stonaker points to where a water bottle cap became stuck in his throat until his teacher, JaNiece Jenkins, at right, dislodged it with the Heimlich maneuver.
East Orange Community Charter School third-grader Robert Stonaker points to where a water bottle cap became stuck in his throat until his teacher, JaNiece Jenkins, at right, dislodged it with the Heimlich maneuver.
EAST ORANGE, NJ — On Wednesday, April 6, an East Orange Charter School security camera in the third-grade classroom of teacher JaNiece Jenkins recorded student Robert Stonaker, age 9, at his first-row desk unable to open a bottle of water. Giving up on using his hands, the boy tried using his teeth. With a squeeze and a twist, a gush of water came from the bottle, prompting Robert to stand up suddenly and run to a sink in the rear of the classroom. After a moment, he turned around and ran to the front of the classroom and his teacher’s desk, pointing to his throat. Jenkins immediately stood up, turned the boy around and performed the Heimlich maneuver. A small white object, the bottle’s cap, could be seen popping from the boy’s mouth.
In an April 8, interview with the Record-Transcript, Jenkins, who is now in her fifth year of teaching at EOCS, said she received first aid instruction at Montclair High School, where she is head cheerleading coach, and has received first aid refresher courses at EOCS. For coaches and teachers, this training is mandatory, she said.
“I think I was in a little bit of shock after it happened and relieved he was OK,” Jenkins said of Robert’s close call, “I took him immediately to the nurse.”
At first, Jenkins did not think she had saved his life and thought only that she had had a big scare. It was not until Carl Kyer, the head of school security, viewed the footage and told her she had indeed saved the boy’s life that her quick thinking and lifesaving effort started to sink in.
“I got full of emotions,” she said. “I couldn’t believe it happened. I was relieved he was OK. My students were shocked by the situation, and I knew I had to immediately come back (from the nurse’s office) and make sure they were OK and understood what happened. But they were all calm and quiet, waiting for my return. And when they saw Robert was OK because he came back to class, they were relieved. They were very well-behaved with all of that emotion from what just happened and what could have happened.”
Robert said he was unable to open the bottle because the cap was too tight.
“So, I started to use my teeth,” he said. “And then I squeezed it, and the water pushed the cap into my throat. The water went down but the cap didn’t. I thought I was going to die.”
He could not breathe and ran to the sink to somehow remove the cap. He thought maybe he could cough it up.
“It didn’t come out, so I ran to Miss Jenkins,” he said. “I started pointing to my throat and she noticed I couldn’t talk, so she did the Heimlich maneuver.”
Robert did not remember his thoughts when the cap popped out. Smiling broadly, he said he did not keep the cap as a souvenir either. It was in a garbage can. The nurse, he said, checked his throat to make sure the cap actually came out.
“She let me wait there a little bit and called my mother and told her everything,” he continued. “I sat there for a little while.”
Someone from school security brought him back to his classroom. He did not say anything to his mother when he got home.
“I just sat on the couch,” he said. “She said, ‘Do we have to take you to the hospital?’ I told her, ‘No, I’m not going to the hospital.’ She said if she did take me to the hospital, she’d leave me there.”
Principal Tracey Watkins said when she saw the security recording, her first reaction was: Oh my God.
“Then gushing pride,” she said. “When I saw the video, Miss Jenkins jumped into action. Teachers do so much already. There’s so much on their plate. And when this happens, we already know teachers are heroes. This adds a new definition.”
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