An Apalachee High School teacher revealed how she shielded her 18 students during the Wednesday school shooting in Georgia that left four dead and multiple others injured.
“I lied,” Jennifer Carter, a longtime Spanish teacher at the school, wrote in a widely shared Facebook post. “I lied to my kids today in second period. I told them it was just a drill. I told them to get behind my couches (thank GOD I ditched desks and have bulky furniture!) and be quiet — the more quiet we are the faster the drill will end. I knew it was a lie. I knew this was what I always plan my furniture arrangement for every year.”
“My kids were able to just hide and not panic for over 10 minutes, until we heard the banging on doors, walkie talkies, and yelling in the hallway. Then I had to come clean,” she continued.
The students numbered 18 and all of them “trusted me and did exactly what I asked,” Carter said.
Nevertheless, Carter “felt so helpless,” adding that “[i]t was the worst 20 minutes of my career.”
She described how the police evacuated her and the 18 students to the school’s football field, “[g]uns pointed at us as we leave.” She wrote of her frantic search for and reunion with a 19th student named Anna who had been elsewhere on the school premises.
“All 19 of my kids safe. My planning paid off. Planning I wish I had never had to actually execute,” she concluded.
Carter was Apalachee High School’s 2022-2023 Teacher of the Year, according to a Jan. 24, 2023 announcement by the school.
Colt Gray, 14, is accused of shooting at his classmates, killing two students and two teachers and injuring nine other individuals. (RELATED: Mother Of Georgia Shooting Suspect Called School Warning Of ‘Extreme Emergency’: REPORT)
The Barrow County School System identified the two slain teachers as Richard Aspinwall and Cristina Irimie, and the two fallen students as Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo. The nine injured persons reportedly are one teacher and eight students.
Gray, reportedly questioned back in May 2023 about alleged shooting threats made online, appeared in court Friday to face four counts of felony murder, WKYC Channel 3 News reported. Initially informing Gray that he could face the death penalty, the judge reportedly later resiled from the remark, given Gray’s age.
Gray’s father, Colin, 54, was also arrested and charged.
While mourning the loss, the school system said it was cooperating fully with investigations, expressed gratitude for the compassion and support received, and stirred up its students and staff to “be courageous in all that they do each day.”
