Radloff Middle School Bus Manager Honored For Saving Students from Bus Fire

Jose Rivera-Perez was already responding to an accident when the real emergency found him.

He’s a special education bus manager for Radloff Middle School — the kind of job where you’re trained for the worst and hope it never comes. That afternoon, he was headed to a Code Five, district shorthand for an accident, when he saw something worse. A bus was on fire.

He came upon it directly: Zebiba Juber’s bus, flames visible, students still inside.

“So I just parked real quick and jumped into action,” Perez says.

No hesitation. No waiting for backup. He grabbed a fire extinguisher and helped evacuate the students alongside Juber, another special education bus manager. Then he put the fire out.

For that, Perez was named the 2025 Hidden Hero by the Rotary Club of Gwinnett County — a title tha