Stories of heroism by
adults and children are emerging from Sandy Hook Elementary School where a lone
gunman killed 26 people, including his mother and 20 children, in a terrifying
early Friday morning shooting spree. Here a few stories of the heroic:
School therapist Diane
Day described how principal Dawn Hochsprung and a school psychologist,
identified as Mary Scherlach, leaped from their seats and ran out of a meeting
when they heard gunshots.
"They didn't
think twice about confronting or seeing what was going on," she told The
Wall Street Journal.
Hochsprung and
Sherlach were shot dead in the hallway, according to news reports.
Sandy Hook's lead
teacher pressed her body against the meeting room's door, which did not have a
lock, Day said. The gunman shot through the door, wounding the unidentified
teacher in an arm and a leg.
"She was our
hero," Day said
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| The Shooter
Parent Robert Licata
told WABC-TV the gunman burst into the classroom of his 6-year-old son and shot
the teacher without saying a word.
|
"That's when my son
grabbed a bunch of his friends and ran out the door," he said. "He
was very brave. He waited for his friends."
First-grade teacher
Kaitlin Riog said she was in a morning meeting when she heard what sounded like
automatic gunfire. She then locked her classroom door and herded her students
into the bathroom, where she locked them in and blocked the door with a tall
storage unit.
"I felt that, in
the time, I tried to be very strong for my children," she told WABC.
"I said anyone who believed in the power in the prayer, we need to pray.
And those who don't believe in prayer, think happy thoughts... I told the kids
I love them and I was so happy they were my students... I didn't think we were
going to live."
When police knocked
later, she said, she told officers to slide their badges under the door, then
told them to get a key to prove they were police. Officers then unlocked the
door and took the children to a nearby fire department.
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