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1615-15 Various Miami Beach Press [RETURN] to continue or type q to return to Menu: ♦ mh SCHOOLKIDS ' HIJACKER HAD HEPATITIS 11/15/1995 THE MIAMI HERALD Copyright (c) 1995, The Miami Herald DATE: Wednesday, November 15, 1995 EDITION: FINAL SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: 1B LENGTH: 72 lines ILLUSTRATION: photo: Nick Sang (a) SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: GAIL EPSTEIN Herald Staff Writer SCHOOLKIDS ' HIJACKER HAD HEPATITIS BUT CHANCE OF INFECTION SLIM, EXPERT SAYS Still recovering from their traumatic hijacking, the children of Dade school bus No. CX-17 now have this to deal with: Kidnapper Nick Sang, whose blood splattered some of them, was infected with hepatitis B. School officials notified the youngsters ' parents late last week that their children might have been exposed to the viral infection, which is a leading cause of liver damage and cancer. They were advised to get blood tests immediately. "It ' s another problem added to everything else, " sighed Yolanda Creamer, whose daughter was splashed with Sang' s blood when police fatally shot him. "I 'm not a happy camper. " "There are so many things to be concerned about, " said Armando Rodriguez, father of David, 7, who also got splattered. "I 'm angry. I 'm upset. " Both parents said Tuesday that they had their children tested and are awaiting the results. Dade schools spokesman Henry Fraind said the parents of 10 children were notified about the hepatitis B as a precaution. Three other youngsters were let off the bus before the shooting occurred Nov. 2 in front of Joe ' s Stone Crab restaurant on Miami Beach, the culmination of a 95-minute drama. "We 're not health experts, so we 're simply erring on the side of safety, " Fraind said. "As far as we know, everyone will at least be checked by their physician. " The chances that one of the children got infected are slim but cannot be ignored, said Dr. Eleni Sfakianaki, medical executive director for the Dade County Public Health Unit. "Although sexual transmission is the usual mode, people still get it from blood-to-blood contact, " she said. "But it has to be an open skin wound, or gross contact with the mucous membranes, like the eyes or mouth. " Between 30 and 40 percent of hepatitis B carriers are unaware they are infected and contagious, often because early symptoms are similar to a flu. Jose Sang, brother of hijacker Catalino "Nick" Sang, said he was unaware his brother had hepatitis B. Sfakianaki urged the parents to start baseline testing now, even though the virus might not show up for another 60 to 90 days. Any child who had high exposure to Sang' s blood can take immunoglobulin to boost their immune system and hopefully prevent them from getting sick. Rodriguez said his son had "little dots" and "drips" of Sang' s blood on his leg, but no open cuts or scratches were visible on David' s skin. Creamer' s daughter had Sang' s blood all over her clothes, but her mother isn' t sure how much got onto the girl ' s skin. "She did not have any open wounds, but the doctor told me children' s skin is so sensitive, " Creamer said. "It depends on how long she had the blood on her. I know the people at Joe ' s cleaned her up. " Some of the children on the bus might have been immunized previously for hepatitis B, Fraind said. Since they were learning disabled or autistic, some might have been considered more likely get into fights involving biting and scratching, making them more vulnerable to infectious diseases. Hepatitis B is the fourth most common sexually transmitted disease, after gonorrhea, syphilis and AIDS. The virus causes flulike symptoms at first, but can be fatal because it sometimes results in liver cancer or liver failure. Hepatitis B infects 200, 000 people and causes about 5, 000 deaths annually in the United States, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. It is frequently transmitted through various sex acts and is 100 times easier to catch than AIDS. Five percent to 10 percent of adults with hepatitis B become chronic carriers. Such carriers do not necessarily have symptoms but can give the virus to others throughout their lifetimes. The virus usually is transmitted through sexual contact or blood, although it also is present at very low levels in saliva. It can be contracted by casual, but intimate, contact such as sharing a razor or a toothbrush. KEYWORDS: SANG HEALTH HEPATITIS B KIDNAP SCHOOL CHILDREN TAG: 9503140329 75 of 247 , 4 Terms mh HIJACKER WENT 11/04/1995 THE MIAMI HERALD Copyright (c) 1995, The Miami Herald DATE: Saturday, November 4, 1995 EDITION: FINAL SECTION: FRONT PAGE: lA LENGTH: 158 lines ILLUSTRATION: photo: card (a) , Sang playing chess (a) , Catalino 'Nick' Sang (a) SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: MANNY GARCIA AND GAIL EPSTEIN Herald Staff Writers MEMO: SCHOOL BUS HIJACKING/see end of text for outlines HIJACKER WENT FROM TRANQUIL TO TORMENTED HE WAS CARING, GENTLE, FRIENDS AND FAMILY SAY All Catalino "Nick" Sang wanted Thursday morning was his job back. Sometimes he made $300 a day at Joe ' s Stone Crab. But he quit the night before in a fit of frustration. By morning, desperation had set in. He had three mouths to feed, bills and dreams -- to see his daughters graduate from college. That desperation, his family said Friday night, led Sang to commandeer a school bus carrying children and break all his rules for life. Sang was always the positive thinker, a smiling face who offered friends and family rational perspectives and words of encouragement, via the telephone, a Hallmark card or book inscribed with a personalized note. He always delivered them -- just at the right time. "Spend time with your children, " he told his younger brother, Jose Sang, a father of three. "Hold them, close your eyes, kiss their soft skin . . . " Such a sentiment now seems far from the image most people in South Florida have of Sang: a deranged man yelling about the IRS who hijacked a school bus, terrorized 13 disabled children and eventually was shot dead by police. mmimmw "He lost all perspective, " said Mirtoledys Sang, his sister-in-law. "Nick loved children. He would never hurt anyone. . . . All he wanted was his job. That ' s why he was wearing his tuxedo. " When Metro-Dade police officers killed Sang, he was in his black tux, the same one he kept clean and pressed and hung in a hallway closet within dashing distance of the front door. Now it was blood-stained, as was the spotless reputation Sang had spent his 42 years trying to build, and his family gathered at Jose Sang' s Kendall townhome talking about how his life tragically ended. Absent were his wife, Purificacion, and the couple' s two daughters, Michelle, 19, and Jamelle, 16, who were grieving privately. "I will never get over seeing my brother being killed on television, " said Jose Sang. "I don't think I ' ll ever sleep again. " Friends said Nick Sang spent his entire life helping others -- just like the Good Book mandated. "He always carried a Bible and he could recite from it from memory, " said Kathee Koch, co-owner of Cafe Beethoven, a West Kendall bistro where Sang often worked. "He couldn't work on Sundays because he had to be in church. That is why all this is so confusing. He lived such a clean life. " Clearly the Nick Sang whose actions riveted and horrified people Thursday was someone whose seemingly tranquil life went tragically wrong in the last few days. Early in the week, Sang related his problems with the IRS and troubles with his job at Joe' s Stone Crab restaurant to his pastor at the Alpha & Omega Church, Alberto Delgado, and asked for the minister' s prayers. "He had problems with the IRS -- he owed them money -- but he didn't emphasize the IRS at that time, " Delgado said Friday. "His problem was his job. According to him, they were trying to push him out. " Robert Moorehead, general manager of Joe' s, said Friday there was never any effort to push out Sang, who had worked there seven years: "Absolutely not. No such thing. As a matter of fact, he had the problems and couldn't get his head on straight. " Sang ' s bosses told him to take time off. They said he responded by quitting Wednesday night. That was when Sang began his journey to tragedy. "He called about 2 a.m. and said he had been framed, " his brother Jose recalled. Mirtoledys Sang soon took the receiver from her husband. She told her brother-in-law to live by the same rules he preached to everyone else. But he would not calm down. Mirtoledys Sang drove to his house, where she sat with Nick and his wife until 5 a.m. "I told him go back to Joe ' s and ask for your job back. You need the money. You just can't quit and expect to get a high-paying job. "Nicky prayed out loud to God, asking him to care for his family. I told him, 'Nick, go to sleep. You need rest, ' " Mirtoledys Sang recalled. The next word of Sang came early Thursday, when someone called the pastor Delgado at home and told him Sang was screaming inside the church at 7800 SW 56th St. It was about 7 : 35 a.m. -- 40 minutes before the bus hijacking. "He was not aggressive or threatening, " Delgado said. "He was praying loudly, like 'God help me, the IRS is out to get me. ' He was stressed out, no doubt about that. " Minister Elio Escofet took Sang outside the sanctuary to calm him down and pray with him, Delgado said. Afterward, Sang walked across the street and commandeered the school bus, keeping police at bay with threats of setting off a bomb. "It was not planned. He just was desperate, he was incoherent, " Delgado said. "We received a call here in our office about 7 : 15 or so, a lady on our message machine, saying an Asian man was outside knocking on her door asking for directions to his church. This is just a few blocks away, at 67th Avenue. We' re at 78th Avenue. He was already incoherent at that point, because I he ' s been here many times. " After taking over the bus, Sang continued to rant about the IRS to police negotiators over a cellular phone. What precisely was said will never be known because equipment problems kept police from recording the conversations. But Metro-Dade police gave this account Friday, which shows that police had reason to believe Sang might harm his young hostages: A hostage negotiator tried to calm Sang, who kept repeating that he was upset and wanted to speak with the IRS or he would kill somebody. Sang was heard over the phone yelling commands at the bus driver throughout the event. The negotiator offered to speak to the IRS on Sang' s behalf and asked Sang to stop the bus, but Sang refused, saying he was going to Joe ' s Stone Crab. "So help me, I ' ll kill someone if I can't talk to the IRS, " police quoted Sang as threatening. Once he reached Joe ' s and a child managed to escape, SWAT officers decided they couldn't take a chance that Sang would carry out his threats. A sniper fired one shot that struck Sang, and then a team swarmed the bus, firing more shots. Within seconds, his body had been dragged off the bus and Sang lay dead under a tarp in an alley next to Joe ' s Stone Crab. "Why did they have to shoot him?" asked his brother, near tears. He and his family have sat before the television and re- watched the shooting on the VCR. "Once he was on the ground, they were still beating on him. At that point, he was no longer a threat, " the brother said. "He was still alive. You saw him raising his head, lifting his arm. He needed medical help. He was a human being. " Those close to Sang said that they do not condone what he did, but said his entire life should not be judged by one instance of lunacy. Kathee and Helmuth Koch offered this story of how they will remember Sang: "It was our first weeks in business, " Kathee Koch said. "We were working 18- to 20-hour days and were drained. Suddenly Nick came inside. We didn't know him. " 'You look exhausted, ' he said, pointing toward the kitchen, " Koch said. "He went in the back and washed all the dishes. " A friendship quickly developed. Sang worked for the couple when Joe ' s was closed for the summer. This July, Sang used a Hallmark card to thank the couple. "Congratulations On Your New Venture, " read the card, its front adorned with a picture of mountains, tall pine and a lake. "Tomorrow glows with promise of joys yet to be. " Sang was one of 10 children -- five boys and five girls born to Estela and Lan Fong Sang, immigrants from Canton, China. The family settled in the Dominican Republic and earned enough money to open a Chinese restaurant. The business blossomed. And the children learned the trade from their parents. In 1965, the family moved to the United States during the civil war in the Dominican Republic. Catalino Sang settled in Miami and took the nickname Nick. He signed everything "C. Nick Sang. " He went into the restaurant business, waiting tables, cooking meals and saving his money. He went into business with his brother, but solely as a silent partner in his brother' s restaurants, Gourmet Gourmet in Coral Gables and Peking Dynasty in Sweetwater. He worked at both places until he spread himself thin. "He wasn ' t spending enough time with both his daughters. He lived for those girls, " Jose Sang said. "His family always came first. Everybody came first . . . everyone but Nick. " There will be a viewing for Sang Sunday at Caballero Woodlawn South, 11655 SW 117th Ave. Burial will be Monday morning at Woodlawn Park South. WORKED HARD, READ BIBLE: Catalino 'Nick' Sang, 42 . CARD TO FRIENDS: Sang encouraged Helmuth and Kathee Koch to believe they could make their restaurant a success. PASSION FOR CHESS: Catalino 'Nick' Sang plays chess at his brother' s restaurant in Coral Gables. KEYWORDS: SCHOOL BUS HIJACKING SUICIDE MI MD TAG: 9503120005 79 of 247 , 18 Terms mh TERROR RIDES A SCHOOL BUS 11/03/1995 THE MIAMI HERALD Copyright (c) 1995, The Miami Herald DATE: Friday, November 3, 1995 EDITION: FINAL SECTION: FRONT PAGE: lA LENGTH: 234 lines ILLUSTRATION: color photo: Mayra Rodriguez holds son David (SCHOOL BUS) , Police drag Catalino 'Nick' Sang away (n) , A child who was among the hijacked is reunited with family (a-Ran in State) ; photo: Metro-Dade officers in bullet-proof vests stand guard over Catalino 'Nick' Sang' s body (a) ; map: TROUBLED TRIP TO TRAGEDY SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: GAIL EPSTEIN, FRANCES ROBLES And MARTIN MERZER Herald Staff Writers MEMO: SAGA OF BUS CX-17 TERROR RIDES A SCHOOL BUS DON'T HURT KIDS, DRIVER IMPLORES HIJACKER IS KILLED AFTER 95 MINUTES A waiter fond of poet Ralph Waldo Emerson attends morning prayers at his church, steps across the street and hijacks a school bus. Owing $15, 639. 39 in back taxes, wielding what he says is a bomb, Catalino Sang shields himself with disabled children. Follow my orders, he says, or I will kill the kids. "No problem, I will, " says driver Alicia Chapman, crafty and calm. "But please don't hurt the children. " The saga of Dade County school bus No. CX-17 , bound for Blue Lakes Elementary, begins. Soon, a phalanx of squad cars trails and flanks a bus load of innocents. Two desperate parents jump into their own cars and join the pursuit. Also in the caravan is Dade Schools Superintendent Octavio Visiedo in his black Buick Park Avenue. Someone has abducted 13 of his students. Now, traveling at 20 mph, a trooper pulls within six inches of the bus, tossing in his personal cellular phone. "I was scared to death, " says officer John Koch. "But I had to do what I had to do. I 've got a little girl. She ' s 3 . She ' s my life. " Word spreads. The workday is halted, a region temporarily frozen with dread. Motorists gaze in astonishment; office workers gather at windows to watch the 15-mile, slow-speed chase. Somehow, the odyssey of O.J. Simpson has blended into the movie Speed, and it is unfolding -- live and real -- here in South Florida and on national television. Finally, after 95 minutes, it ends Thursday outside Joe' s Stone Crab, a landmark known around the world. It ends with gunfire from a police marksman named Derringer and with shattered glass and with officers diving into danger to rescue young hostages . It ends with a deranged man dead and one student injured, a sliver of glass in his eye. It ends with cops wearing bulletproof vests hugging kids carrying Lion King schoolbags. It ends about as well as it can. The kids are alive. Most are in Joe ' s, drinking Coke and ginger ale, eating french fries and vanilla ice cream. They can have a balanced meal some other time. Now, they need comfort. Some already are reliving the experience. "A bad man on a bus made us drive a long way, " says Brian Morales, 7, subjected to an unexpected lesson about life in the 1990s. "He was a very bad man and he was keeping us on the bus. " As Brian says this, Sang' s body is sprawled under a yellow tarpaulin, surrounded by officers still tingling with adrenaline. Sang was 42 , an immigrant from the Dominican Republic. Married. Two children, one of them an honors student at Killian High. He owned two Chinese restaurants, but they were consuming his resources. So he waited tables at Joe' s and was known to recite Emerson' s verse as he dished up the stone crabs and mustard sauce. His favorite poem was Success: "The profoundest thought or passion sleeps as in a mine, until it is discovered by an equal mind and heart. " Sang, who was known as Nick, quit in a huff Wednesday night. Co-workers said he was talking to himself, seemed weighted with stress. But that is only part of the story. Another part belongs to Chapman, the bus driver, 46 years old, on the job only 17 months. Largely because of her, 13 children are alive today. "She followed the most important rule: You protect the lives of the children, " said Henry Fraind, spokesman for the Dade school system. "We are taught to protect the children at all costs. We would classify the driver as a modern-day hero. " And another part belongs to the police -- men and women who train for these situations hoping never to employ that training, men and women suddenly confronted by the most intense challenge imaginable, men and women who stormed that bus and saved those kids . "Had we known he was not armed, we would not have shot him, " said Metro-Dade police Director Fred Taylor. "But we did believe that he was armed. He (the police marksman) did exactly was he was trained to do. " Based on accounts from participants and witnesses, this is the story of school bus No. CX-17, an ordinary bus on an ordinary run that turned into an extraordinary experience: Eight-fifteen a.m. , Thursday, Nov. 2, 1995 . Another school day. The kids -- all with learning disabilities -- were being picked up for the trip to Blue Lakes, a school with 618 students, about one-third of them in special education programs. Chapman was on her usual run. She was widely regarded as an excellent driver, one with real concern for the children She stopped the bus at 7821 SW 56th St. , just across the street from the Alpha & Omega Church, which serves an Evangelical congregation. Two children normally were picked up here. Chapman had no way of knowing that Sang was distraught and had just left the church. "He was yelling, " Taylor said. "He was not rational at the time. When he left his home this morning, he told one of his daughters to pray for him. " Sang was under considerable pressure. The income from his job at Joe ' s was being used to subsidize his two restaurants. But no one knows precisely what set him off Thursday morning as bus CX-17 followed its route. One of the children waiting at the bus stop was Daniel Castellanos. His mother, Nubia, was with him. A few minutes later, a neighbor pounded on the Castellanos ' front door. It was opened by Maurice Castellanos, Daniel ' s father. i "She said, 'Don't panic, but some man pushed Nubia onto the bus, ' " Castellanos said. "I reacted in a way that was more like puzzled. A bus?" Later, his wife filled him in. "This guy crosses Miller (Road) and motions to her that he has something on his side. He told her, 'Get inside! ' "My wife sat down and he told the bus driver to close the door and proceed. He told them it was a kidnapping and he was in trouble with the IRS. He went to the back of the bus and he was placing things under the seats. "She thought it was a bomb. She was hysterical (within) but managed to stay collected. " As the bus worked its way toward the Palmetto Expressway, the hijacker ordered the driver to call authorities over her two-way radio. She did, but it proved unreliable. He demanded a cell phone from police, then ripped the radio from the console. Sang told Nubia Castellanos and Dorothy Williams, an adult aide aboard the bus, to open the windows. He soon released Williams, who has diabetes, and the bus rolled on. Castellanos began to engage Sang in conversation. "She pleaded with him not to hurt anybody, " said Maurice Castellanos, who hurried to the bus stop. "He said he had children, too, and wouldn't hurt anyone. "He told her to get off the bus with my son and another child who was crying a lot. I feel like she was able to save that child. " That child was Brian Morales, the 7-year-old who spoke about the "bad man" on the bus. As this was happening, Castellanos returned home. He thought he was calm. He thought he was confident. After all, how far could a hijacker get on a school bus? Then, he realized he was collecting photos of his wife and son. In case the police needed them. "That ' s when it hit me, " Castellanos said. "I might never see them again. " State trooper John Koch, a nine-year veteran, was on patrol nearby when his radio crackled with the news. With the bus now on the Palmetto, Koch joined the chase. This is his account: "The bus came by very slow, 20 mph. The driver opened the door and yelled at me, ' He ' s on the floor! ' The bus curved onto State Road 836, heading east toward downtown Miami and Miami Beach. "I heard on the scanner that he needed a cellular phone and that if he didn 't get it, he was going to start hurting the children. At that point, I said the hell with it. "I knew they said he had a bomb and a gun, but I also knew if I didn't do something quickly, he would do something to the children. "I pull up next to the bus, on the right side, where the door is. I look in and see the bus driver looking back behind her. I thought he was going to pop out and shoot me. I couldn 't shoot because I didn't know where the kids were. "I was six inches from the bus. I said, ' I got the phone. I got the phone. ' I know the guy is right there. She says, 'Throw it! ' I tossed the phone; it was my personal phone. Threw it right in her lap and then I backed off. "That was very scary for me. I knew if he wanted to take a shot, he wouldn 't have missed at that distance, but I couldn't leave the children there. " Using the cell phone, Sang told police he wanted to exit at around 82nd Avenue and stop at an Internal Revenue Service office. They told him he already was beyond that exit. OK, he said, we' ll go to Joe' s Stone Crab instead. Nevertheless, remembering the disaster at the federal building in Oklahoma City, believing that Sang had a bomb, authorities blockaded the federal building in downtown Miami. Sang directed the bus across the MacArthur Causeway. Still trailed by police, it approached the restaurant. Sang had worked there for seven years. Co-workers quoted him as saying that three close relatives recently died. He was under financial stress. Wednesday night, he told a supervisor: "I can't take the pressure any more. I 'm leaving. " Now, the bus had turned the corner of Biscayne and Washington, coasting toward Joe' s new front entrance. One of the students jumped out. The Metro-Dade Special Response Team, a SWAT unit, stood ready, armed with SR-15s, a police version of the AR-15 assault rifle. According to police commanders and others, officer Joe Derringer -- crouched about 30 feet from the bus -- saw a movement from Sang that suggested he was about to detonate a bomb. So Derringer, his name hauntingly evocative of a 19th- Century gunsmith and the weapon he created, fired a single shot through a window, apparently striking Sang. The bus lurched ahead. Not knowing if Sang was wounded, other officers assaulted the bus -- some smashed side windows as a distraction, others crashed through the front door. One of those officers was Jose Fernandez. "He ' s ordered to storm the bus, " said C. Michael Cornely, a police union attorney. "The kids are yelling like crazy. The guy was reaching for something under the coat. Fernandez shot him twice on the bus. " Fernandez and others dragged Sang to an adjacent alley, where the hijacker died. As the shots reverberated, construction workers and others watching the scene cheered and applauded. Later, police said Sang was unarmed. The bag police believed contained a bomb instead held a small respirator brought aboard by one of students. Trooper Koch again, who ended up at the climactic scene: "After the shooting, they pulled him along the ground, away from the bus. Someone yelled 'Bomb! ' and they just scattered. "But the problem was that the kids were still in the bus. I ran inside and started handing kids out. Two or three other people ran in also. "The kids were all strapped in. The bus driver was still trying to get one kid out who was still stuck in his straps. I 'm trying to get his legs to bend to get him out of the straps . I 'm looking for the escape route. Where is it? "And he ' s fighting, scratching, punching, pulling my hair. He knocked the lens out of my glasses. He ' s scared to death, the poor little kid. "I got him out and handed the kid down. I was the last person out the back of the bus, but that bus driver was tough, tough as nails. "I had to yell at her to get her out of there. 'Get out of the bus, lady! ' " Finally, she did -- and he did. The saga of school bus CX- 17 was over. Herald staff writers Elinor Brecher, Maria Camacho, Ina Paiva Cordle, Tom Dubocq, Joan Fleischman, Manny Garcia, Rick Jervis, John Lantigua, Grace Lim, David Lyons, Jodi Mailander, Arnold Markowitz and Patrick May contributed to this report, as did Herald researcher Elisabeth Donovan. CUTLINES: CANDACE BARBOT / Herald Staff IN AN ALLEY: Metro-Dade officers in bullet-proof vests stand guard over Catalino 'Nick' Sang' s body by Joe' s Stone Crab. Others tended to the children inside the restaurant, where they were fed snacks. BENNY MILLARES / For The Herald A VIOLENT RESOLUTION: Police drag mortally wounded Catalino 'Nick' Sang away after they stormed the school bus outside Joe ' s Stone Crab in Miami Beach. PETER ANDREW BOSCH / Herald Staff IN LOVING ARMS: Mayra Rodriguez holds son David, 7 , after he and other students are returned to parents at Blue Lakes Elementary. PETER ANDREW BOSCH / Herald Staff BACK IN LOVING ARMS: A child who was among the hijacked is reunited with family at Blue Lakes Elementary in Southwest Dade. KEYWORDS: SCHOOL BUS HIJACKING MB DA JUVENILE POLICE SHOOTING TAG: 9503110484 80 of 247, 27 Terms mh DRIVER, $8-AN-HOUR HEROINE, WHEELED KIDS TO SAFETY 11/03/1995 THE MIAMI HERALD Copyright (c) 1995, The Miami Herald DATE: Friday, November 3, 1995 EDITION: FINAL SECTION: FRONT PAGE: 20A LENGTH: 71 lines ILLUSTRATION: photo: Alicia 'Loly' Chapman is comforted by Octavio Visiedo (a) SOURCE/CREDIT LINE: JODI MAILANDER And GRACE LIM Herald Staff Writers MEMO: SAGA OF BUS CX-17 DRIVER, $8-AN-HOUR HEROINE, WHEELED KIDS TO SAFETY Her back ramrod straight and her bright blond hair shining above the dashboard, a school bus driver who earns $8 . 03 an hour was a level-headed heroine in Thursday' s hijacking. Throughout the tense morning, bus driver Alicia "Loly" Rivero Chapman, 46, worried most about the 13 tiny hostages in the back of her bus. "I was thinking of them more than myself, " she said. "I was praying all the time, praying constantly. I just went along with him. Whatever he wanted me to do, I did. " Chapman, who started driving for Dade public schools last year, said Catalino Sang told her to "look ahead. Don't look back. " She followed orders, sneaking peeks in the mirror above her head, until she heard gunshots. She whirled around and saw one boy covered with blood. Her heart stopped. But the blood belonged to Sang, who lay on the bus floor. "I 'm still shaking, " Chapman said. "But I 'm trying to control myself. I kept thinking, 'This is it. ' " It was Chapman' s quick response that alerted the school system to trouble. She pressed the button on her two-way radio, allowing a dispatcher to hear the commotion on the bus at 8 :26 a.m. "Turn that off, " the dispatcher heard a male voice say. "Please don't hurt the children, " Chapman begged. She became an intermediary between hijacker and police, hopping off the bus at one point to tell police trailing the bus the hijacker wanted a cellular phone. Then she returned to the bus -- and her students. After Sang was shot, Chapman unbuckled students, many of whom were strapped into harnesses because they are disabled. She fractured a toe on her right foot as she jumped from the back door. Later, with the kids safely seated in Joe ' s munching on french fries and ice cream, Chapman hobbled among them, calling their names and soothing them in Spanish. FmkJ 1 ► "I can't believe this is happening to my kids, " she said. "That ' s my mom for you, " said a proud Aileen Reyes, 20, the youngest of Chapman' s two daughters . "She ' s great. " "This is what we expect from her, " said Dennis Chapman, an ex-Miami policeman who is a substitute teacher at Southwest High and Chapman' s second husband. "She ' s always cool, calm and collected. " Chapman, who fled Cuba for Miami with her parents when she was 16, has spent her adult life around children. Before she became a public school bus driver, Chapman drove her own guaguita, one of the many private school buses that parents hire so their children get door-to-door transportation. Before that, she worked part time in the cafeterias at Kendale Lakes and Village Green elementaries, both in Southwest Dade where she lives. "This is an absolutely unselfish person, " marveled Superintendent Octavio Visiedo. "She was primarily concerned about the children. " "She' s a true hero, " said Blue Lakes Elementary School Principal Joanne Stearns. Everybody else seemed to think so, too. Chapman ' s house was flooded with calls from Inside Edition, The Today Show and numerous other national news programs. People magazine sent flowers. On Thursday, as Chapman and the children were returned to school after the hijacking, parents stood and cheered her. They all had the same question: "Can we keep Mrs . Chapman as our bus driver? " CUTLINES: DEZSO SZURI / Herald Staff 'CALM AND COLLECTED ' : Driver Alicia 'Loly' Rivero Chapman is comforted by Superintendent Octavio Visiedo, center. KEYWORDS: SCHOOL BUS HIJACKING JUVENILE POLICE SHOOTING TAG: 9503110446 83 of 247 , 7 Terms Transfer complete. Press [RETURN] to return to Menu: