Manchester School Security Guard Who Saved 3 Students From Choking Honored By Red Cross

MANCHESTER, CT — The American Red Cross Tuesday honored a security guard who saved three students from choking over the past 18 months at Bennet Academy in Manchester.

Longtime security staffer Leon Haberski said he "was just reacting," while adding, "the training works."

But there was Haberski accepting the Red Cross lifesaving award, the "Certificate of Extraordinary Personal Action," at a ceremony at Manchester High School. Red Cross regional CEO Richard Branigan made the presentation after receiving Haberski's nomination from Manchester security staffer Tammy Castagna with help from school nurse Penny Parent and athletic department staffer Mary Cardarelli.

"Leon acted courageously in a moment of crisis," Branigan said. "Leon's actions remind us that preparing saves lives."

Haberski not only received emergency training from the Red Cross, but was given the award at MHS — where the state's largest blood drive takes place in conjunction with the Manchester Road Race.

"This place saves a lot of lives, so the setting is fitting," Branigan said.

Haberski was a longtime state police officer, assigned to the Connecticut Children and Families, and came to the Manchester school system after more than two decades of service. He has worked with middle school students locally — first at Illing and then at Bennet.

Until his first of three life-saving actions, he had never used the Heimlich maneuver.

"Never," he said. "But the district certainly has kept me trained over the past 13 years."

Lunch can be complicated at the middle school level, he said, with 200 kids in each wave times five waves.

"The staff alerted me to the first one," Haberski said, while adding it took "multiple compressions" to free up the stuck piece of food from the student, who had a relatively small esophagus.

He said the second instance was "the easiest and quickest," with the food dislodging relatively fast.

"It's still scary," he said.

The third instance was the most frightening, he added.

"I happened to catch the kid's face at the table and knew something was not normal," Haberski said. "So I ran over and saw that the student was already becoming lethargic. I really didn't think about it, I just acted."

He called all three instances "emotional."

"The training definitely works," he said.