ROYAL CITY — A quick-thinking student saved a choking classmate’s life at Royal Middle School on Jan. 9. 

Seventh-grader Alangel Baeza was honored at a school assembly Friday morning with a plaque and congratulations from his teachers, fellow students and Royal City police and firefighters. 

“A new student had just come in to our school a couple of weeks ago,” RMS teacher Ben Orth told the assembled students. “This student – straight from Mexico, zero English – goes to the cafeteria for the first day ever, comes running out still swallowing his food, and it gets lodged in his throat. This kid started to panic, as you can imagine, and Alangel, in a flash moment, recognized it. Other kids were walking by (but) he got straight behind him and performed the Heimlich maneuver. Food dislodged in we're talking 30 seconds.” 

The first responders then shook Alangel’s hand as the student body rose for a standing ovation. 

Alangel had been asked by Principal Jerred Copenhaver to show the new student around the school, he explained. He quickly identified the other boy’s distress from videos he had seen online, he said. 

“I knew it because I watched videos on YouTube,” he said. “Sometimes I get bored and I don’t know what to watch, so I watch those.” 

His mom Karina Baeza said she knew what he’d been watching and the family had practiced the Heimlich maneuver at home in case the need ever arose.

“You know, a lot of times in school, we honor athletics and we honor all sorts of things, but it’s not every day we get to honor someone who saves a life,” Copenhaver said. “So, as a principal, I was super proud … We have students that will rise to the occasion. Here at the middle school, we have a CODE of honor – character, ownership, discipline, excellence – and Alangel nailed all those.” 

Royal Middle School students applaud classmate Alangel Baeza for his life-saving quick action that saved a fellow student from choking.