Gwinnett Daily Post SUNDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2016
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Vol. 47, No. 52
RAMS’ REDEMPTION
Grayson wins wild game vs. Roswell in OT for Gwinnett’s lone championship of year. For more playoff coverage, See Sports 1B
Bus driver gets support from school community BY KEITH FARNER keith.farner@gwinnettdailypost.com
He’s a bus driver who dabs with students and creates category days throughout the week, like “Trivia Tuesday,” and “Wacky Wednesday.” So it was no surprise that the students and parents at Lanier Middle School this week delivered an outpouring of support for the man they call “Mr. Rob”after he was injured when the bus he was driving was hit by a tree service truck at the intersection of North Price Road and Peachtree Industrial Boulevard on Tuesday. Rob Stephenson Rob Stephenson suffered several serious injuries in the wreck, which occured on his 57th birthday. He remains at Gwinnett Medical Center in stable condition after he was moved from the intensive care unit on Friday morning, his wife said. A GoFundMe account was set up to help the family, which includes three children, travel to and from school, the hospital and their Cumming home. Two students were transported to GMC-Lawrenceville, and another was taken to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Scottish Rite, according to a Gwinnett police report. Terry Baumgardner, who drove the 2015 Ford LGT that hit the school bus, was cited for failure to obey a traffic signal. Baumgardner told police that he dropped his phone and was attempting to pick it up. “I think it’s really fabulous that the community rallies around kids,” the bus driver’s wife, Rene Stephenson said. “Whenever there’s anything involving a bus, in your community or not, it just hits you in that spot. Because everybody trusts the school system, the bus drivers and they know how vulnerable and naive children are. It’s somebody’s else’s heart in that kid’s body.” See DRIVER, Page 9A
Jessica Fermin stares at the crib where her 8-month-old baby was sleeping just hours before a fire destroyed that side of the house Nov. 22. (Staff Photos: Cailin O’Brien)
A home for the holidays
Couple trying to rebuild lives after Thanksgiving fire BY CAILIN O’BRIEN
cailin.obrien@gwinnettdailypost.com
Jessica Fermin checks out the damage a Nov. 22 fire inflicted on the side of her house.
Jessica Fermin can’t believe how close the fire came to burning up the crib where her 8-month-old daughter slept hours earlier that Tuesday before Thanksgiving. “I just look at this and think ‘wow,’” she said, staring into the crib in the side room of her now gutted home. “If it would have been just three hours before — the baby was here, you know?” Fermin and her husband Lamar Wheeler got their
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baby and three older children safely out of their Lawrenceville house that day. Now, they’re focused on trying to get their family into a new home as quickly as possible. “I just hope we’re in the house by the holidays,” Fermin said. “I don’t want to spend Christmas in a hotel.” They need help. See FIRE, Page 9A
Police welcome new dog to K-9 unit
Elsa is the newest member of the Gwinnett Police Department’s K-9 Unit. (Photo: Gwinnett Police Department)
BY CAILIN O’BRIEN
cailin.obrien@gwinnettdailypost.com
A new furry professional will soon be on the case with the Gwinnett County Police Department. Thanks to a $12,000 donation from Kathy Gestar, founder of the Cody Fund, the department has begun training a Belgian Malinois named Elsa for its K-9 unit, according to the department. Cpl. Michele Pihera told the Daily Post
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Elsa is 1 or 2 years old. She’s the ninth dog in the department’s K-9 unit. Gestar began the Cody Fund after attending a Gwinnett police K-9 demonstration in 1999 and discovering most police departments didn’t have sufficient K-9 unit budgets.
“Moved by the need for additional dogs and equipment, I founded the Cody Fund, named after my beloved Sheltie that passed way in 2008, to support police K-9s in Gwinnett County,” Gestar wrote in a letter to Chief Butch Ayers in June. She’s made multiple donations to the Gwinnett Police Department and at least one to the Snellville
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INSIDE Classified .......9B
Crossword ... 10A
Lottery........... 4A
Perspectives ..6A
Comics......... 10A
Horoscope .....4A
Nation ........... 5A
Sports ............1B
Community ....1C
Local ............. 2A
Obituaries ......7A
Weather .........4A
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See K-9, Page 9A