Youngstown schools bus driver, aide intervene when dog attacks children

YOUNGSTOWN — Bus driver Ashley Triplett and Viola Sheeler, a bus aide, rushed to help two Stambaugh Charter Academy students who were being attacked by a dog.

The students, a boy and girl who are sixth-graders, were at their bus stop at Francisco and Guadalupe shortly before 7 a.m. Wednesday. When Triplett and Sheeler, who drive a different bus route, drove by, they saw the dog charging the boy and girl.

Triplett stopped the bus and asked Sheeler to help while Triplett remained on the bus to watch over all of the children on the bus. Sheeler grabbed a broom handle and jumped off of the bus.

At first, Sheeler thought it was the children’s dog and that they were playing.

“But when I saw the little boy and girl looked terrified and scared, I instantly got into mother mode and jumped off the bus,” she said.

The boy was trying to shield the girl from the dog. Sheeler started yelling, trying to get the dog’s attention so the kids could get away. She used a broom handle and struck the dog when it came at her.

The girl got safely on the bus, but the boy was bitten before he was able to board. The children’s parents were called as well as police and an ambulance.

“I’m extremely proud of Ashley and Viola,” said Colleen Murphy-Penk, YCSD’s transportation chief. “They saw children who needed help and they sprang into action. I shudder to think what could have happened to that little boy and little girl if no one had come along to help.”