An Apalachee High School teacher revealed how he protected his 18 students during Wednesday's school shooting that left four people dead and many injured.
“I lied,” said Jennifer Carter, a longtime Spanish teacher at the school. Written In a widely shared Facebook post: “Today I lied to my kids during period 2. I told them it was just a drill. I told them to hide behind the couch (thank goodness we ditched the desks and had bulky furniture!) and be quiet. The quieter they were, the quicker the drill would be over. I knew this was a lie. I knew they always plan their furniture arrangement every year.”
“The children hid without panicking for more than 10 minutes, but then we heard banging on the door, walkie-talkies and screaming from the hallway. So I had no choice but to tell the truth,” she continued.
There were 18 students, and they all “trusted me and did exactly what I asked them to do,” Carter said.
Despite this, Carter added, “I felt very powerless.”[i]It was the worst 20 minutes of my career.”
She described how police evacuated her and 18 other students to the school's football field:[g]”Gunshots were pointed at us as we were leaving,” she wrote, describing her frantic search for and reunion with a 19th student, also named Anna, who was in another part of the school campus.
“All 19 children were safe. My plan worked. I wish I had never carried out my plan,” she concluded.
Carter has been named Apalachee High School's 2022-2023 Teacher of the Year. Announcement on January 24, 2023 Depends on the school.
Fourteen-year-old Colt Gray is accused of opening fire on his classmates, killing two students and two teachers and wounding nine more. (Related: Georgia shooting suspect's mother calls school to warn of 'extreme emergency': reports)
Barrow County School System Identified The two teachers killed were Richard Aspinwall and Christina Irimy, the two students killed were Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, and the nine injured were reported to be one teacher and eight students.
Gray was reportedly questioned in May 2023 over an alleged online shooting threat and appeared in court on Friday charged with four counts of felony murder, WKYC Channel 3 News reported. ReportedThe judge initially told Gray he could face the death penalty, but later reportedly retracted that statement, given Gray's age.
Gray's father, Collin, 54, was also arrested and charged.
While the school mourns its loss, it co-operated fully with the investigation, expressed gratitude for the compassion and support it had received, and urged students and staff to “be courageous in every action, every day”.
