Newtown, CT — Parents waited anxiously this morning to see if their children were amongst the survivors that teachers were leading from Sandy Hook Elementary school. After Adam Lanza allegedly entered the school and opened fire , teachers sprang into action. Now, parents of surviving children report these educators are their “heroes.”
At least 27 people died in Friday’s shooting — 18 of them children between the ages of 5 and 10. In the midst of tragedy, the heroic acts of teachers are already being reported.
“They will be applauded for their efforts,” an ABC newscaster said during a live report Friday afternoon.
While heart-wrenching images outside Sandy Hook Elementary School showed children at the scene looking frightened and scared, teachers took charge of their students with calm efficiency, reports say. Children exited school buildings in single-file lines, holding one another’s shoulders, guided by their teachers.
“There was no screaming, which indicates just how carefully these teachers carried this out this afternoon, ” said the ABC narrator.
Parents echo the newscaster’s assessment. Brenda Lebinski, the mother of an eight-year-old student, reported that her daughter is safe because a teacher decided to move her kids out of harm’s way when Lanza entered the school about 30 minutes after the school day began.
“My daughter’s teacher is my hero,” Lebinski said. “She locked all the kids in a closet and that saved their lives.”
Another student, 8, said that a teacher saved him from bullets fired in the school. The unidentified teacher pulled the 8-year-old boy and another child out of harm’s way.
“I’m just so grateful to the teacher who saved him, she definitely [saved his life],” the boy’s mother said. “He had bullets going by him and another child, and pulled them into a classroom.”
