A field trip to the Baltimore Science Center turned into a water rescue mission for one class from St. Agnes School in Arlington. T. J. O’Leary, a science teacher at St. Agnes, didn’t think twice before he dove in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor to save a floundering father and son April 3.
O’Leary thought his seventh graders would be interested in a new, hands-on project at the Baltimore Science Center. After students had completed the lab, O’Leary, the students and their chaperones sat on the steps by the inner harbor to enjoy lunch. The students enjoyed feeding the many seagulls that swooped around the harbor.
“There were birds everywhere, seagulls everywhere,” O’Leary said. “And out of the corner of my eye … I see this kid at full speed chasing a seagull.”
The elementary school-aged boy was on a field trip with one of the Baltimore County public schools. “The young boy ended up just bolting over the edge (of the ledge) into the water, and about 10 feet behind him was his father, kind of screaming,” O’Leary said.
The father plunged off the terrace into the 50-foot-deep portion of the harbor, where his son was flailing in the water. O’Leary and the other St. Agnes chaperones noticed that both were struggling to swim.
“We heard him say, ‘No swim,’ ” chaperone Kimberly McCorry said. “It was definitely obvious that he was in trouble.”
O’Leary jumped into action.
“I need to do something,” he thought. “So, I ripped off my shoes, and sprinted down and jumped off the ledge into the water.”
O’Leary went for the young boy first. But rescuing the father proved to be a tougher task.
“He absolutely swamped me, he’s pulling me under and kind of just using me as a prop to stay up,” O’Leary said. “I had to break away from him and ended up getting a secure hold.”
As soon as chaperone Christine Klauder saw the father pulling O’Leary down, she instinctively ran down the harbor steps and into the water. “I got about waist-deep, and I kind of anchored myself to the wall,” she said. She hauled the father out of the water with an ease that surprised her. “He was a lot lighter than I thought he would be,” she said.
A former lifeguard, Klauder said her training helped her respond quickly. “I’m so relieved that everyone was okay, and grateful that I was able to play a part,” she said.
O’Leary said the rescue took just under a minute, “which doesn’t seem like a long time, but it’s an eternity.”
Following the rescue, the father was speechless and the child was crying. The father “had his arm around him as the EMT and paramedics were coming.”
The father and son were transported to Baltimore City Hospital and were eventually released with no injuries.
O’Leary’s students were astonished and frightened in that moment. But they received an invaluable lesson that day.
“Problems happen, events happen, but we need to be part of the solution,” O’Leary said. “We can stand around (and) we watch other people make things happen. Or we have (to make) the decision to make things happen ourselves.”
O’Leary described the experience as traumatic, but in the moment, he felt spiritual courage come from another place. “I think faith that day is what carried me through,” he said.
Donofrio can be reached at [email protected].
This article has been updated.
