Last month, Indiana congressman Peter Visclosky honored two seventh grade students, Sydn’e Duncan and Jalen Tinco, for saving their teacher’s life.

M’onique Hutchinson teaches language arts at Aspire Charter Academy in Gary, Indiana. She has lived with asthma her whole life and is allergic to certain scents, including cologne. Fortunately, at the beginning of the school year, she taught her class what to do in case anyone had an asthma attack. When Hutchinson herself had an attack, her students remembered what to do and sprung into action.

First, Duncan noticed one of her classmates was wearing cologne. She got the student out of class and wiped down the student’s chair. By this point Hutchinson was already unwell and having trouble breathing. Her inhalers weren’t doing the trick, so Tinco ran down the hall and got two other teachers. They called 911, cleared the halls, and got Hutchinson to an ambulance.

“For them to do what they did for me, I owe them my life, and I’m thankful for that,” Hutchinson said of her students. She believes that every school should have an asthma action plan in place in case a student or teacher has an attack. As her experience has proven, a good asthma action plan can save lives.