A school shooting is every parent, student and teacher’s worst nightmare. The idea of running for your life when you are at school trying to teach or learn is sad and scary. Yet, with so many school shootings in our country, teachers and students have had to learn how to prepare for such an emergency.

When someone hears gunshots there are probably two common ways to try to protect yourself. You could run or hide. In the case of a school, that could mean fleeing from the school or locking the door to the classroom and hiding inside.

When a middle school teacher named Krista Gneiting heard a gunshot in her school, her reaction was different. Her first instinct was to peak out the classroom door into the hallway. She only saw one person, a janitor. She went back in the classroom and heard more gunshots. Knowing the shooter was not currently in the hallway, she instructed her students to run quickly from the middle school to the high school. 

Once the students and Gneiting were outside, one of the students told her that he had been shot. She was in disbelief at first, but then she looked around and saw the shooter, a young girl. Her next instinct was not to run or hide. Instead, she decided that she needed to take the gun away from the shooter.

Watch the video below to hear Gneiting recount her heroic story in her own words.

Viewers are applauding this brave teacher. One person wrote, “She should be the teacher of the year. If everyone can learn to be more like this teacher… This world would be a better place.”

Another comment reads, “She’s an amazing and very powerful lady in this manner of being able to calm people not seeing her as an enemy but a person.”

What amazes you most about this teacher’s story?