Green Hope substitute teacher honored for saving two teens from predator

Karen Donalson is on her third long-term stint as a sub at Green Hope. Earlier this month, she was on a bench with her grandchild at Hunter Street Park when she started listening to an inappropriate conversation between a middle-aged man and two teens.

Donalson said she was frightened enough to think about doing nothing as she walked away, but she called 911.

Her call led officers to arrest repeat sex offender Jonathan Hartgrave, 36, who had been previously charged with sexual exploitation of a minor and numerous drug convictions.

"Any normal day, beautiful day out, enjoying all the park had to offer and it could have turned into a very tragic situation but it didn't," said Apex Police Chief John Lettney, while presenting Donalson with the second Apex Chief Coin.

"The Apex detective told me from the time I made the phone call, in the five minutes that I went to the parking lot to meet the responding officer that when they got back over there the youngest girl, I think was 13, was crying, and the other was 15, was white as a sheet because he had already made his move, so I'm just so grateful that I overcame fear and did the right thing," Donalson said.

Donalson accepted the award by telling her students that she knew she couldn't wrestle him to the ground, but she knew she could call.