Bossier Deputy Gets Star of Valor

Congrats today to Bossier Sheriff's Deputy Chris Slopak. He has been awarded the Star of Valor medal for his efforts to save a Bossier teacher.

BPSO

Slopak administered the Heimlich maneuver to Plantation Park Elementary Teacher Lindsay Burns, saving her life....on her very first day of kindergarten class. It was Slopak's first time to serve as a school resource officer.

Bossier Sheriff Julian Whittington presented Deputy Slopak with the "Star of Valor" award during a ceremony at Plantation Park Elementary.

This is the first Star of Valor award to be given out this year by Sheriff Whittington and is the highest award presented by the Bossier Sheriff's Office.

Lindsay Burns says “It was quiet time, and I was feeling a little hungry. I had been a little busy, and I hadn’t had a chance to eat, and I got a piece of fruit out of my refrigerator.”

She took a bite of that fruit and that’s when the unthinkable happened.
“When I took a bite, it immediately just slipped down into my throat.” Lindsay said she was able to breath momentarily, but that’s when things got progressively worse.

“I thought, well, I’ll just wash it down with some water,” the 18-year-veteran teacher said. “I took a sip, and that’s when things got really bad, and it just escalated from there when it lodged in and I couldn’t breathe.”

She said she didn’t want to panic in front of her students, so she ran out of the classroom. That’s when she ran into Deputy Slopak.

“I was here at the right time and the right place,” said Slopak, who was only on his second full day serving as a School Resource Officer at Plantation Park Elementary School.

Categories: Education, Shreveport News