WADESBORO, N.C. — Officer D’Anya Chance has only been a school resource officer at Wadesboro Elementary School since August but had to use lifesaving measures for the first time this week.
She’s credited with saving the life of a 2-year-old boy found unresponsive in the car pick up line at the school Tuesday afternoon.
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It was his birthday, and he was with his mom waiting to pick up his fifth grade sibling.
Chance told Channel 9 she heard the toddler’s mother screaming for help and found 2-year-old Prince lying in the grass.
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(Prince)
“Once I got here and started doing CPR, I asked her ‘how long had he been like that?’” Chance recalled. “She said, ‘I have no idea, I don’t know.’”
Chance was able to get the toddler breathing again and said EMS was on the scene in less than two minutes. Prince was transported to Levine Children’s Hospital in Charlotte.
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He was discharged Wednesday night and is now home, expected to make a full recovery.
Channel 9 tracked down a police report from Tuesday that said a witness saw the window rolled up to Prince’s neck. Another witness said they saw him stuck in the window for a quarter mile. Police don’t know how it happened or if he was in a car seat.
Wadesboro’s police chief told Channel 9 there are still several questions he wants answered and confirmed the department is investigating the incident.
Anson County Schools Superintendent Michael Freeman said the entire school system is thankful for Chance, adding she will be honored for her lifesaving actions by the Wadesboro Town Council and the Anson County Board of Education.
Freeman said he plans to use the incident involving Prince to highlight why school resource officers are needed in every Anson County School. Right now, only five of the system’s 10 schools have permanent resource officers.
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