Nathan's Legacy

Laurel, Miss. - Today is December 11, but for a lot of people throughout many local communities remember this exact day six years ago when a little boy lost his life.

Director of Public Affairs, Cpt. John Poulous said, “Today is a very special day. Six years ago, Nathan Key lost his life getting off a school bus, just trying to make it back home to his parents."

And on this special day, students from local schools were brought together to not only celebrate Nathan's life, but to also learn about good safety habits.

Poulous said "today an event was held for children to design posters and have a contest for the best poster. This shows the attempt and effort that is put into not only educating our children about school bus safety, but the motoring public and what their obligations are when it comes to driving."

In 2011, Mississippi implemented Nathan's Law, which is a bill that increases penalties for passing a stopped school bus.

Nathan’s mother, Lori McJohnson said, "Nathan's legacy is a foundation non-profit organization that we actually founded after Nathan's death. What we do in that foundation is we actually go throughout the state of Mississippi to school districts and train students on proper loading and unloading procedures and teach them other school bus safety rules and things they should know and follow in order to have a safer ride on their school buses."

The local support from the community has helped the Key's family spread Nathan's Legacy.

McJohnson said "from day one, our community surrounded us, prayer, just anything that we needed, even support with helping us get Nathan's Law passed."