PASADENA, Texas – A Pasadena mother, worried that her 4-year-old son would be shut out of pre-kindergarten classes, gave birth to his brother Thursday while registering at Pasadena ISD's Fisher Elementary School.
Vanessa DeLeon said she was already having contractions when she arrived at the school Thursday morning with her three children.
"At 9:40 a.m., when we got there was when I started timing them and they were like five to six minutes apart," DeLeon said.
She had been unable to complete registering her son Alexis for pre-K classes earlier this week and was worried that if she didn't finish Thursday, he wouldn't be admitted into the program. Slots in the pre-K program go quickly. Some parents brought lawn chairs with them as they began lining up for registration at around 6 a.m. So DeLeon detoured to the school on the way to the hospital.
"It was very important for him to go to school. He was going to be mad at me for the whole year if I didn't register him, so we had to, definitely had to," DeLeon said. "I went and gave them the package and said am I missing anything else cause I'm in labor right now and I have to go."
DeLeon didn't make it to the front door though before she began delivering the child. She was ushered into the school nurse's office where Ashley Morris began delivering the baby while simultaneously calling 911.
"I'm trying to get on my gloves and I look and the baby is crowning," Morris said. "I've got the phone here (on shoulder) and I see the baby, and I had no choice. Mom pushed and we pulled the baby out."
A Pasadena ISD police officer with EMT training arrived to help deliver the child. There were no towels available, so they used school T-shirts to swaddle the baby until an ambulance arrived.
Little Geovanni weighed 6 pounds, 3 ounces at birth. And he already has a place waiting for him in Fisher Elementary's pre-K program.
"She was willing to give birth over it," Fisher Elementary School Principal Libby Escalante said. "I said he was born before Sept. 1, we can get him in four years. I don't care where you live," Escalante said. "I want him in four years. He needs to come to pre-K here."
For her trouble, DeLeon also successfully registered her 4-year-old son before his brother was born. Big brother Alexis will be attending Fisher pre-K when the school year begins.