![]() They sat along the far wall of her classroom, a room she has spent countless years building into her sanctuary. Recognizing two of them as her former students, she opened her door to let them in, and then locked it behind them. Minutes later, Schaefer heard four students running in the hall, knocking on doors, trying to get into a classroom. “She is always thinking of others and trying to protect our students - that’s her number one concern,” Houlditch said. Schaefer’s act didn’t surprise Houlditch, who has taught at Mount Tabor for nine years. No one was there, but she felt better having checked. What if there were students there? Though protocol advises teachers not to open their doors, Schaefer ran down the hall to the bathrooms. ![]() They were ready to endure the lockdown together in the empty room.īut then Schaefer thought of the bathrooms. They covered the door and windows with paper. Both teachers had third-period planning, meaning they had no students in their classrooms. The online active shooter training Schaefer completes before every school year was no longer a hypothetical.Īfter the hallway was clear, Schaefer rushed into her classroom, along with Houlditch. In the hall, Schaefer yelled at students, many of whom were still plodding along as if it were a drill, to get into classrooms. Now, eight days into the semester, one sophomore student’s violent act, taking approximately 45 seconds, upended the day, the year. Seconds later, the school’s administrative assistant announced in a calm voice over the intercom that Mount Tabor was moving into lockdown. In the hall, English teacher Laurie Schaefer thought, “Is this really happening? Did I just hear that right?” Her second-period class at Mount Tabor High School had just ended, and she was chatting with Emily Houlditch, who assists Schaefer with the class. She shouted into her walkie-talkie, “Shots fired, shots fired! We need to go into lockdown!” JeremyĮight days into the 2021 fall semester, at 12:07 p.m., assistant principal Evette Clemons raced down the hall. I’m posting Rachel’s story below not to re-traumatize anyone, but to remind you that while you may be able to move on, a growing number of people who grow up in the shadow of violence cannot. There were headlines, but little followup on the emotional toll of that violence. ![]() It hadn’t been covered in-depth,” she says of the shooting. “Before, I only really knew what I saw on the news. I’ve been given permission to share it here. Schaefer, the main teacher profiled, taught me in high school.” That story was posted a few weeks ago on UNC MediaHub (Crumpler, then a journalism student at UNC-Chapel Hill, has since graduated). Earlier this month, Rachel Crumpler wrote a deeply reported story about what happened inside Mount Tabor that day, and what happened since then. ![]() The people affected by the shooting do not. Attempts to contain justified parent panic. The news unfolded as it now typically does in these horrific situations. A student had been shot and killed at Mount Tabor High School, less than a mile away. We were both former news reporters, and instantly knew something awful had happened. On that day, I was having lunch with a colleague in Winston-Salem when we heard the sirens multiplying. NOTE FROM JEREMY: As I’ve been reading the awful news from Uvalde, Texas, I keep thinking back to last September 1. ![]()
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