They were among the first to know something was terribly wrong at The Covenant School on March 27th. And the first to set in motion a response that has been lauded as a "textbook" example of how to handle a school shooting. They reflected on those moments with me.
“It happens really quick, but we do it very well I feel like,” says 911 call taker Hailey Joseph speaking about the morning of the Covenant school shooting. The first call came into the Emergency Communication Center at 10:12 and everything soon changed.
“It was probably the calmest controlled chaos I’ve ever seen in my whole life. Everyone had a job, and they knew what that job was and they were doing it,” says Courtney Leaman, another call taker.
"Active shooter calls" are not unusual, but these 911 workers say they knew from the first call this was different.
“When I heard my co-worker a few desks over talking about gunshots I don’t know what it was – I just felt this heaviness,” remembers Bailee Stanfield.
A critical part of the job is asking a lot of questions, which can be frustrating to callers who just want help. But in real time, as the Covenant callers gave information about what they were seeing and hearing, those details were relayed to dispatchers who were talking with police.
“The only reason police were able to find the person they were looking for and find them as quickly as they did and keep everyone else in that building safe is because of how many questions we asked. We really solidified and painted a really clear picture for first responders about where they needed to go and who they needed to look for,” explains Katharine Minor who worked as a call taker and dispatcher during the emergency.
As calm and deliberate as they are on the phone, these call takers say, when those calls ended, the gravity of the situation set in.
“I just wanted to get home to my family. Being in that situation that’s what you think about in that moment --what are my children doing, it could have been my family and you think about those children that’s not going home tonight,” says Remeshia Merriweather.
“I think it’s moments like these you are reminded that you’re created to do this, and you were right where you needed to be in the moment you were needed,” says Stanfield.
