Submitted report

A typical day at De Zavala Elementary School for paraprofessional Sonja Villalobos includes working with the Intervention Team to assist students to strengthen reading and math skills. At the end of the day, she will often help with carpool duties, and at the beginning of the day monitoring in the cafeteria.

It was during cafeteria duties on Dec. 1 that her day was far from typical, and interventionist took on a whole new meaning.

While walking the cafeteria area, Villalobos saw fifth grader Marco Guerrero struggling with his throat. She quickly approached him and asked if there was a problem. When Mario could not answer her and she observed his distress close-up, Villalobos removed him from the table and started performing the Heimlich maneuver. After four thrusts, the embedded food was propelled out of his mouth, and his breathing resumed.

Villalobos took Mario to the nurse’s office for further observation and his family was contacted. Talking later about the ordeal, both Villalobos and Marco became teary-eyed, and Marco hugged Villalobos –thanking her for her quick actions in helping him. Villalobos learned the life-saving technique during a First Aid course.