NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — We’ve been learning more about what happened inside the Antioch High in the minutes and hours after the shooting.
Teachers were afraid to speak out but several decided to share their story with me after a shooter opened fire in the cafeteria on Jan. 22. The shooting killed Dayana Escalante, 16, before a 17-year-old teen turned the gun on himself.
After safely sheltering from an active shooter, SWAT officers brought them out of their classrooms.
They said the chaos and confusion only got worse.
We agreed to alter their voices and not show their faces in hopes of saving lives if this ever happens again.
What we saw in the aftermath of the shooting were hundreds of frantic parents and grandparents waiting to be reunited with their kids.
“Just want to see her, just need to see her. I need to know she’s in one piece, that’s all I need to do now,” said Tiffany Brooks, a grandmother on the day of the shooting.
Metro police designated a medical center just down the road as the official reunification site. Families were told that's where students would be bused, so they waited — many of them for hours.
At the high school, no one seemed to know what was going on.
"The kids are just asking you so many questions you don’t have the answers to. Where are we going? What do I tell my parents? What do I do? Hey, my book bag with my house key is in the classroom. I left it in. Where do I go? Who am I supposed to call" the teachers said.
Every school is required to have a safety plan, and they are required to practice it.
However, the teachers said Antioch failed to follow their plan. The plan requires teachers to take certain actions, but the teachers said that never happened.
“The way we were evacuated the state of things in the gym was complete and utter chaos,” said one teacher.
They said the directions in the gym kept changing, causing more anxiety and confusion.
“Our student population is very diverse. We have many different languages at our school, and this was all in English. Finally, they put a police officer who spoke Spanish on the microphone to also say it. They didn’t have Arabic, Swahili.”
Email records show the first communication teachers got from school leaders that day was an email nearly an hour after the shooting telling them to have a roster of their class.
“We all just assumed everyone as a whole was safe and that's not a thing. I think MNPS or MNPD should have allowed MNPD to take over in a crisis like that. That should have been a thing for the police department, and (the police department) needed to make sure all children are accounted for because they're children," one teacher said.
“Nothing has been told to us, no assurances are being made. The trust is completely broken," another teacher said.
Roughly 10 minutes after the first email, teachers got another one saying the shooter was no longer a threat and an investigation was underway.
Minutes later at about 12:19 p.m., another email told teachers students would be bused to the medical center down the road.
“OK, this is how we’re gonna separate them now. No, this is how we’re gonna separate them now," a teacher recalled.
“Each teacher stood in front of a section. Take 28 kids, whoever is in front of you. Write their names on a piece of paper and their phone numbers and those are your 28 kids you're responsible for," a teacher said.
A few minutes before dismissal time on what would be a normal school day: another email.
“Never mind we’re gonna just send them on their regular buses," a teacher said.
“All things considered those kids did very good. They may have been confused and scared and anxious to get home, but they conducted themselves better than the adults they did," another teacher explained.
These teachers said they were frustrated and angry about how the school responded. They say we have to do better the next time.
“Have a real plan and practice that plan. There are districts across the country that practice it, that actually get kids on buses and explain to them what the reunification would be like. Fully practice it. So, to say that that's not an option is lazy.”
The teachers we talked to hope their willingness to speak out will lead to real changes and make our schools safer.
The school board will vote next week on a plan to put a weapon detection system in every high school.
The teachers also hope the district will make other changes including how quickly traumatized students and teachers have to return to school.
If you have thoughts on this story, please email me at Amanda.Roberts@NewsChannel5.com.
