WAITE PARK -- It was a special night at the District 742 school board meeting last Wednesday night.

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Sara Gangle, School Resource Officer for Apollo High School and Madison Elementary, presented a Citizen Appreciation Award to Courtney Guck, the Special Education Academic Coach at North Junior High.

So on May 12 2022, Guck was providing lunch supervision to one of the three lunches at North at approximately 11:33am. A student was sitting nearby laughing and talking with her friends. The students stood up laughing then suddenly her body language was seen in distress. She grabbed her neck area and began to choke. Guck was standing approximately six feet away, observed the crisis, and instantly walked over and began to administrate administer eight Heimlich maneuvers on the student.

Due to Courtney's calm and swift action the student was able to regain normal breathing which prevented which could have been a devastating event.

There were about 100 students in the cafeteria at the time, and video surveillance shows the student choking for about 90 seconds before Guck stepped in.

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