Every so often it feels appropriate, even called for, to share a story, mostly without comment. This seems like one of those times. The story appeared in Education Week (via the Associated Press), and has been edited, for space reasons.
Rigby , Idaho – When a student opened fire at an Idaho middle school, teacher Krista Gneiting directed children to safety, rushed to help a wounded victim, and then calmly disarmed the 6th grade shooter, hugging and consoling the girl until police arrived. Parents credited the math teacher’s display of compassion with saving lives.
Gneiting said she was preparing her Rigby Middle School students for their final exams when she heard the first gunshot down the hall. She looked outside her classroom and saw the custodian lying on the floor. She heard two more shots as she closed the door. “So I just told my students, ‘We are going to leave, we’re going to run to the high school, you’re going to run hard, you’re not going to look back and now is the time to go”.
Police said a 6th grade girl brought the handgun in her backpack and shot two people inside the school and one outside. All three were wounded in their limbs and released from the hospital within a few days.
Gneiting said she was trying to help one of the students who had been shot when she saw the girl holding the gun. She told the wounded student to stay still and approached the 6th grader. “It was a little girl, and my brain couldn’t quite grasp that,” she said. “I just knew when I saw that gun, I had to get the gun.”
She asked the girl, “Are you the shooter?” and then walked closer, putting her hand on the child’s arm and sliding it down to the gun. “I just slowly pulled the gun out of her hand, and she allowed me to. She didn’t give it to me, but she didn’t fight,” Gneiting said. “And then after I got the gun, I just pulled her into a hug because I thought, this little girl has a mom somewhere that doesn’t realize she’s having a breakdown and she’s hurting people.”
Gneiting held the girl, consoling her until police arrived. “After a while, the girl started talking to me, and I could tell she was very unhappy,” Gneiting said. “I just kept hugging her and loving her and trying to let her know that we’re going to get through this together. I do believe that my being there helped her because she calmed down.”
Once police got there, Gneiting told the girl that an officer would need to put her in handcuffs, and the child complied. “She didn’t respond, she just let him. He was very gentle and very kind, and he just went ahead and took her and put her in the police car,” she said.
Gneiting, meanwhile, said she hopes people can forgive the girl and help her get the support she needs.“She is just barely starting in life and she just needs some help. “I think we need to make sure we get her help and get her back into where she loves herself so that she can function in society.”
There will be the usual cries of outrage here (‘She touched a student!’ ‘Throw the book at the girl!’). Perhaps those are discussions for another time.
But can’t we briefly revel in a shooting story with a relatively happy ending? And can’t we remind ourselves that these kinds of teachers are everywhere and are easily the rule rather than the exception. Please – thank a teacher today.
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