INDIANAPOLIS — An elementary school principal died Tuesday when she moved to push young students out of the path of a bus that had jumped a curb outside the school.
Susan Jordan, 69, was the principal at Amy Beverland Elementary School. She died on impact when hit by the bus, according to a release from the Indianapolis Fire Department.
Two 10-year-old students were also struck in the accident, which occurred during afternoon pick-up Tuesday. Each sustained non-life-threatening injuries and are expected to make a full recovery. Twenty-five children who were already on the bus were unharmed.
The Metropolitan School District of Lawrence Township canceled school across the district Wednesday, but Amy Beverland remained open as one of four emotional support centers for families and staff.
“Thank You, Mrs. Jordan!” read a sign hanging on a fence outside the elementary school. “We Love You!”
In a press conference Wednesday, three of Jordan’s friends and colleagues said she died as she lived: putting the well-being of children first.
“Maybe the reason she was there all the years was to be there for those kids,” school information specialist Jamie Strebing said.
There is no indication the bus driver, whose name has not been released, was impaired at the time of the accident, according to a release from MSDLT.
The bus driver, who does not have a history of moving violations or discipline issues, said she saw Jordan push several children out of the bus’s way, according to the IFD release. She said she wasn’t sure what caused the bus, which had been static, to accelerate.
Jordan had been the school’s principal for more than 22 years.
Strebing was joined at the press conference by Parent Faculty Organization president Amy Bilyeu and district administrator Denna Renbarger.
Bilyeu said Jordan would memorize students’ activities and interests in addition to their names. Then, holding their shoulders and speaking face to face, she’d talk to them in the hallways about their lives.
Strebing remembered how Jordan signed every certificate awarded to students who met monthly reading goals, shaking every student’s hand when presenting their certificate — thousands every year.
Meredith Nordmann, an IU sophomore who attended Amy Beverland, said she remembered Jordan keeping children calm during a tornado.
“We were all sitting in the hallway for, like, three hours, and she read us stories over the intercom,” she said.
Lexi Benson, 14, attended Amy Beverland and said she was close with Jordan. Jordan remembered names, she said, and gave cards out for birthdays.
When Benson’s father suddenly needed a liver transplant three years ago, he was given a short time to live if a liver didn’t become available.
“She was always there for me,” Benson, now an eighth grader, said. “She would come by my classroom every day to make sure I was doing OK.”
Kristen Day, 17, only attended Amy Beverland for her sixth grade year, but she said the interest Jordan took in her students extended past their time at the school.
When Day, now a high school junior, returned to the elementary school in November with the Lawrence Township School Student Foundation to appear on the school’s morning announcements, she saw Jordan.
“It had been five years since I’d been there, and she was telling me how much she remembered me and loved to see me come back,” she said.
Day, who is black, also said Jordan made her feel comfortable in the mostly white school.
“She really made sure to make everyone feel welcome and make sure we didn’t feel different,” she said.
For some, Renbarger said, Jordan’s death was so shocking its weight hasn’t hit yet.
Others have begun working on ways to honor Jordan’s life. A t-shirt reading “Amy Beverland Strong” is in the works, and the school has requested book donations in lieu of flowers.
All schools in the district except Amy Beverland and the Early Learning Center at Amy Beverland will be in session Thursday.
Counselors have encouraged parents and staff not to fear grieving in front of their children, Renbarger said.
“It will be part of us forever, but we’ll grow stronger,” she said. “We don’t know why, but children were saved, and that’s what Mrs. Jordan would have wanted.”
