Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) Director Dr. Adrienne Battle gave special recognition to a school counselor and other staff at James Lawson High School for saving a student’s life last month at Tuesday’s school board meeting.¶
Battle said that on Aug. 23, 14-year-old Hudson Maddux collapsed due to an undiagnosed heart condition when walking to a pep rally event at the school. Noticing that both his heart and breathing had stopped, Battle said school counselor Linda Swift immediately instructed students to inform school nurses and call 911. She added that school nurses Natalie Carlise and Janavee Patel performed CPR on him, and Carlise used a defibrillator to save his heart.¶
“Most days at school do not bring life or death situations fortunately, but that's exactly what happened at James Lawson High School on Friday, August 23rd at 1 p.m.,” Battle said. “The Lawson community acted with great urgency to assist and care for one of their own. School counselor Linda Swift saw that Hudson was not getting up immediately and moved to his side to check on him. From that moment a team of Lawson faculty and staff members took measures to provide Hudson emergency care that ultimately saved his life.”¶
In other business, the board elected District 7 Board Member Freda Player as its new chair and District 4 Board Member Berthena Nabaa-McKinney as its new vice chair. Rachael Anne Elrod, the board’s former chair, will continue serving as a regular board member representing District 2. The board also sworn in new board members Robert Taylor, Zach Young and TK Fayne, as well as its newest student member, Hannah Nguyen.¶
“I'm definitely looking forward to working with everyone in their new roles as we move forward,” Battle said to the newly-elected officers and board members.¶
