Youthful heroes

Eighth-grader subdues attacker on school bus

November 20, 2005

MARY AMES/Frontiersman reporter

WASILLA - A woman who forced her way onto a school bus Friday morning, attacked the bus driver and told the students she was a 750-year-old African princess was stopped from hurting the six other students on the bus when a Teeland Middle School eighth-grader decked her.

Abraham Joshua &#8220A.J.” Smith, 13, said he's gotten into fights at school before, so he's been hit by other kids. And he's hit other kids.

&#8220What was strange was hitting an adult,” A.J. said. &#8220But she swung at me, and I didn't even think about it. I blocked her and hit her in the jaw.”

January M. Strawser, 30, of Wasilla, was walking barefoot in the road near the intersection of Beech Way and Spruce Drive about 7 a.m., when bus driver Francesca Burgess, 60, of Wasilla, stopped to see what was wrong, according to a report from Alaska State Troopers.

&#8220The lady set one of those orange traffic posts in the middle of the road,” A.J. said. &#8220She had on a really short skirt and a tank top and wasn't wearing any shoes. The driver opened the door a little bit, just a crack and the lady yanked opened the door, got in and sat down in the second seat. Then she stood up.”

Burgess asked Strawser to sit down, A.J. said, but Strawser wouldn't.

&#8220She said, ‘Don't back talk or I'll have to hurt you,'” A.J. said.

Burgess again asked Strawser to sit down, added please and radioed the bus barn, according to A.J. When Burgess got off the radio, Strawser hit her and choked her with a rope, he said.

&#8220She choked her two or three times,” A.J. said. &#8220She started saying she was a 750-year-old African princess who was looking for her sister and that every time she gets close, they try to stop her. She didn't say who ‘they' were.”

After Strawser said to Burgess, &#8220I know somebody who can cut your throat,” A.J. decided to get his headlamp flashlight out to signal any nearby vehicles, he said.

A.J. must have been loud enough for Strawser to hear when he told the other students his plan, because she headed toward him, saying she knew someone was going to open the back door, and he never got a chance to signal, he said.

That was when she tried to punch him. A.J. blocked her punch and landed one of his own. But Strawser didn't go down.

&#8220I grabbed her by the legs, to take her down,” A.J. said. &#8220She bit my right elbow and kicked me in the face. I slapped her a couple of times when she bit me to get her to let go. After I had her down, I yelled to the other kids and the driver to get off the bus. The kids left, but the driver stayed on. One of the kids lived nearby and went to get his dad. His dad got there and spent about 15 minutes trying to get the rope and her wallet away from her.”

Strawser told the man she would let go of the rope if A.J. would let her sit down. At first, A.J. refused because he didn't trust her, he said. A.J. finally let her sit down, Strawser released the rope and A.J. got off the bus just before the troopers arrived, he said.

Strawser didn't smell of alcohol, A.J. said, but she did smell badly.

A.J. said he is about 5-feet, 9 1/2 inches tall, which is about an inch taller than Strawser, by his estimation.

After the initial interview with troopers on scene, Bus 91 continued on to Teeland and delivered the students safely to school, according to Kim Floyd, public information officer for the Mat-Su Borough School District.

&#8220We're very proud of the way our students handled themselves,” Floyd said. &#8220Our staff did a fine job of handling the situation. We can't emphasize enough our commitment to student safety.”

A.J.'s dad, Rusty Smith said he was at work in Anchorage when he got a message to call the troopers about his son.

&#8220I wondered, like any parent, what he had done now,” Rusty Smith said. &#8220I thought maybe he had problems with the bus driver, you know? She's older and old-school, set in her ways. When I talked to the trooper, the first thing he said was that everything was OK and I really admire that professionalism. When I heard what happened, I said ‘Thank-you, Lord, that it turned out that way.' His size is a blessing. That's my side of the family, they're all big men.”

Rusty Smith said his father was a Golden Gloves champ for the army during the Korean war and taught him and his sister how to defend themselves. He said he's shown A.J. and his brother David, 11, some techniques here and there along with the belief in self-defense.

&#8220It sounds to me like he hit her with a right cross,” he said.

A.J. said he got a tetanus shot at the hospital and had blood drawn to check for HIV because Strawser's bite broke the skin. Although he was kicked in the face, he didn't need any stitches.

&#8220The whole incident seemed as if it wasn't real,” A.J. said. &#8220It was in real slow motion, almost clip by clip.”

Floyd stressed that Burgess is an employee of the bus contractor, not a school district employee. After the trooper investigation is complete, the school district will do its own review of the incident and Burgess will not drive a bus for the school district until the district is done with its investigation, provided Burgess did nothing wrong, she said.

&#8220It wasn't her fault, I'd testify to that,” A.J. said. &#8220She did what any decent human being would do.”

Strawser was charged in Palmer court with two counts of fourth-degree assault Friday afternoon, according to court records. She was taken to Valley Hospital and then to Alaska Psychiatric Institute, according to troopers.

Contact Mary Ames at

352-2284 or mary.ames@

frontiersman.com.