Check It Out: Children who grow up to be heroes

By Joan Janzen

This story will make you smile. A general store was held up, and a brave cashier hit the guy with her labelling gun. The police are looking for the would-be robber and say there is now a price on the man’s head.

While that’s a joke, it’s no joke that brave people are willing to do the right thing in an emergency. Some of those brave souls are children.

During the past couple of years, I’ve listened to stories of children who saved lives. But I encourage you to keep reading because I’ve saved the best story for last.

In one instance, a grandparent was fortunate to have her nine-year-old grandson visit her in her home in Newfoundland. While eating her lunch, a piece of a sandwich got lodged in her throat, and she began to choke.

Her grandson immediately took action, stood behind his grandma and wrapped his arms around her stomach. He pumped her six times, slapped her on the back, and then pumped six more times until the piece of food came loose.

Two years earlier, the boy had taken a first aid course. His knowledge, combined with his calm response, saved his grandma’s life. But he did acknowledge it was the scariest moment of his life.

Another story was about an eight-year-old Canadian boy playing on the front porch when he saw black smoke coming from his house. He said he remembered his dad telling him that black smoke meant danger, and without considering any danger to himself, he rushed inside to warn his family. The family escaped through the back door ten minutes before the house bursting flames.

The third story I’ll share involves a Grade 7 student who was riding the school bus along with sixty other students. When the boy looked in the mirror and saw the bus driver shaking and beginning to lose consciousness, he jumped into action.

He grabbed the steering wheel, and applied the brakes, preventing the bus from hitting a car. While the other students screamed, the boy firmly instructed them to phone 911. The boy said he did it because he knew it was the right thing to do. Although he had been asked to do multiple interviews, the humble hero only agreed to speak with one local news outlet.

Those are amazing accounts of kids doing what’s right in order to save lives. It reminded me of Ryan Montgomery, who tells about his life, growing up and putting his mother through hell. But this Grade 10 high school dropout is now noted as the number one ethical hacker in the world, hunting down child predators.

Sean Ryan interviewed him on his social media platform. Twenty-nine-year-old Ryan Montgomery said his mom and grandfather raised him, while his dad was in and out of jail. Ryan’s career path began at eight years of age when his grandpa brought home a computer from the office.

He became obsessed with how computers work and kept learning, fixing computers, and meeting people on the Internet who helped him learn about hacking.

“They might not have known I was 11 years old, but I kept asking questions. A lot of 11-year-olds wouldn’t think about selling stuff on the Internet, but I wanted to make money as soon as possible because my parents weren’t rich. I made a couple of thousand dollars here and there. Unfortunately, all my money went to pay for drugs,” he confessed. “But I wouldn’t take it back ‘cause I learned a lot of things.”

He later worked with Amazon, PayPal and Facebook, with cyber security companies, and mentored others as well. His path to becoming an ethical hacker began when a friend and concerned mom sent him disturbing photos she saw on a site. “I immediately wanted to do something about it,” he said. Within two to three hours, he was able to find a vulnerability in their platform, access their server and take down the site without them even knowing they had been hacked.

Now Ryan and his team are hunting down child predators full-time and educating parents. “We’ve caught 14 people in a couple of months, and local law enforcement has been incredible.”

He reminds parents that 75% percent of children are willing to share information with strangers online. Ryan said he has the resources, team and skill set to help people and has developed an app that allows parents to monitor their children.

“You will know where your kid is at all times, be able to check his/her app usage, text messages, and basically have access to their phone,” he explained. “I think it’s more important to do that and have your kid aggravated at you than have the latter.” The latter, he refers to, can be horrific and result in a lifetime of trauma.

Like the kids I mentioned earlier, Ryan has followed this path simply because he knows it’s the right thing to do. No one in Ryan’s life would have predicted this high school dropout would go on to save children from harm. But he did.

In today’s culture, where sexualization of children is promoted, Ryan may never be acknowledged as a hero. But I don’t think he cares. “Even if we save one kid, it’s worth it. It’s the best decision I’ve ever made in my life,” he concluded.

Joan can be reached at joanjanzen@yahoo.com.