Catholic school teacher rescues father and son in Inner Harbor

A field trip to the Maryland Science Center in Baltimore turned into a water rescue mission for one class from St. Agnes School in Arlington, Va. 

T. J. O’Leary, a science teacher at St. Agnes, didn’t think twice before he jumped into Baltimore’s Inner Harbor to save a foundering father and son April 3.

O’Leary thought his seventh graders would be interested in a new, hands-on project at the Science Center. After students had completed the lab, O’Leary, the students and their chaperones sat on the steps by the Inner Harbor to enjoy lunch. The students enjoyed feeding the many seagulls that swooped around the harbor.

“There were birds everywhere, seagulls everywhere,” O’Leary said. “And out of the corner of my eye … I see this kid at full speed chasing a seagull.”

The elementary-school-aged boy was on a school field trip from a Baltimore County public school. “The young boy ended up just bolting over the edge (of the ledge) into the water, and about 10 feet behind him was his father, kind of screaming,” O’Leary said.

The father plunged off the terrace into the the harbor, where his son was flailing in the water. O’Leary and the other St. Agnes chaperones noticed that both were struggling to swim in the water that can range to 50 feet in depth in some areas. O’Leary jumped into action.

“I need to do something,” he thought. “So, I ripped off my shoes, and sprinted down and jumped off the ledge into the water.”

O’Leary went for the young boy first and hauled him back to the steps. His exhaustion increasing, he plunged back into the harbor to save the father. That proved to be a tougher task. 

“He absolutely swamped me, he’s pulling me under and kind of just using me as a prop to stay up,” O’Leary said. “I had to break away from him and ended up getting a secure hold and getting him back.”

Chaperone Christine Davenport ran down the harbor steps and helped O’Leary lift the father out of the water. O’Leary said the rescue took just under a minute, “which doesn’t seem like a long time, but it’s an eternity.”

Following the rescue, the father was speechless and the child was crying. The father “had his arm around him as the EMT and paramedics were coming.”

The father and son were transported to a Baltimore City hospital and were eventually released with no injuries.

O’Leary’s students were astonished and frightened. But they received an invaluable lesson that day. 

“Problems happen, events happen, but we need to be part of the solution,” O’Leary said. “We can stand around (and) we watch other people make things happen. Or we have (to make) the decision to make things happen ourselves.”

O’Leary described the experience as traumatic, but in the moment, he felt spiritual courage come from another place. “I think faith that day is what carried me through,” he said.

This story was updated April 10 at 8 a.m. to correct the name of the Maryland Science Center in Baltimore.

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