By ROBIN SHANNON

Staff Reporter

RESERVE — Family members and neighbors who gathered to cope with the tragic loss of a 10-year-old St. John Parish Public School Student remembered the young girl as being a bright, respectful little student.

Authorities said Jasmine Green of Reserve was killed after she tripped and fell into the path of a school bus that was supposed to take her to her fifth grade classes at Fifth Ward Elementary School. Green suffered internal injuries to her lower body and was pronounced dead at River Parishes Hospital in LaPlace.

“We are really going to miss her,” said Sharon Green, who is Jasmine Green’s aunt. “She was a true princess.”

Family members said Jasmine Green was named for her favorite Disney Princess and that the young girl often loved to watch the films. They said she had been dropped off at her grandmother’s house by her mother just minutes before the accident. About eight other students were on the bus at the time of the accident, four of them from Jasmine Green’s neighborhood.

“We always waited together at the bus stop,” said 8-year-old Danielle Frank, one of Green’s neighborhood playmates. “We played together a lot.”

“We all played together on the street, she even came over to play yesterday,” said Kenny Carter, 11, another neighborhood kid who was already on the bus. “We would all play games like hide and seek and freeze tag. We’re definitely going to miss her.”

Frank’s mother Carla Frank, 41, was outside watching her daughters and son board the bus when the accident occurred. She said the scene is still vivid in her mind.

“Jasmine was yelling with her hand out for her (the driver) to stop, but she just didn’t hear her,” said Frank. “I ran out to the street and rubbed her back to try and keep Jasmine awake while the driver called for an ambulance. I could hear (the driver) saying ‘please don’t leave me Jasmine. Please don’t leave me.’”

Frank said she always tells her kids to get across the road before the bus comes. She said the driver “wasn’t even rolling that fast. Just enough to get moving again.”

Sharon Green said her niece was a bright student and always very respectful. She said Jasmine’s mother is an elementary school teacher in St. John Parish. She said Jasmine was always excited about going to school and had just been selected to the honor roll this past week.

She said Jasmine enjoyed singing, dancing and being a big sister to her 2-year-old brother Donavon Sanders.

Officials from the St. John Parish School Board said grief counselors were present at the school to handle questions from children. Superintendant Dr. Courtney Millet sent a letter home with each student detailing what happened and expressing sympathy for the family.

“Please assist your child at this time by allowing him or her to talk about the accident and express his or her feelings in different ways – through tears, writing or art,” the letter said. “Our children need to know that their feelings of grief are normal and that we will get through this time of sadness.”