Survivor Says Principal, Others Saved Her in U.S. School Rampage.
Source: nyt/reuters
A survivor of the elementary school massacre in Connecticut that killed 26 people said on Sunday the principal and two staff members had saved her and others' lives by warning that a gunman was in the building.
Becky Virgalla, a reading consultant at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, said she was in a meeting with Principal Dawn Hochsprung, school psychologist Mary Sherlach and other colleagues when the shooter broke into the building on December 14.
Hochsprung, Sherlach and lead teacher Natalie Hammond "went out in the hall to check out the noise that we didn't know that was gunshots at first," Virgalla told Reuters Television at a memorial where the names of the victims were written on wooden angels.
"The three of them were shot and they yelled back 'shooter, stay put.' And they saved my life and the life of four others who were at that meeting," she said.
Virgalla had some advice for parents and teachers: make sure your doors lock from the inside.
"Ours did not and teachers had to go out. You can't be out in a hall when a shooter is present in your school. Just that simple thing could make a difference in time and safety of the children," she said.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2012/12/23/arts/23reuters-usa-shooting-connecticut.html?hp
xtraxritical
(3,576 posts)marybourg
(12,634 posts)of situations, creating danger to themselves and others. And -- until the recent manic proliferation of assault weapons, classrooms were very safe places.
elleng
(131,073 posts)Baitball Blogger
(46,755 posts)Hence the statement you hear on t.v. often: the school is in lockdown.
1monster
(11,012 posts)even when the doors are locked, they can be opened from the inside. In order to lock the doors, the teacher has to step outside of the classroom, and lock it from the outside.
This is true of closet doors and office doors in schools in Florida (and probably every other state too).
It is to prevent a student being inadvertantly locked inside a classroom.
Baitball Blogger
(46,755 posts)1monster
(11,012 posts)classroomm, closing the door after entering.
emmadoggy
(2,142 posts)in order to lock the door, you must have your key, go to the outside door knob, turn the lock and then pull the door shut.
Not exactly quick and easy.
proud2BlibKansan
(96,793 posts)It's a hassle.
tblue
(16,350 posts)Oy. I am so angry that we even have to think about this. But okay. Thanks.
PSPS
(13,613 posts)obama2terms
(563 posts)MichiganVote
(21,086 posts)also have a glass inset or a glass window. Not to mention that the majority of doors are hollow wooded things that couldn't stop a fly.
1monster
(11,012 posts)It would be nice if we could have an emergency lock that works from the inside, but in the past, it was not something anybody ever needed to think of.