Student and Teacher Give Harrowing Accounts of Shooting at Texas High School: ‘My Students Were the Ones Who Realized It Was Gunfire’
Dale Topham, a teacher who was at Timberview High School during Wednesday’s shooting, told ABC News that his “students were the ones who realized it was gunfire,” and began barricading the door.
“At first I thought it was a bunch of people throwing desks but my students immediately said ‘hey that’s gunfire’ and sprung into action,” he said.
According to KTVT four people were injured in the shooting. One person refused treatment at the scene, while the other three were taken to a hospital. The outlet reported that a “15-year-old victim is in critical condition, a 25-year-old male employee at school is in good condition, and a slightly injured female teen is being treated and will soon be released.”
Police said they have the 18-year-old suspect in custody and that he has been charged with multiple counts of aggravated assault with a gun.
Topham, a community college professor who was on campus to teach a college-level course to a group of high school students, did not have the keys to the classroom he was in.
“It was clear to me that the students had been well-trained [from active shooter drills], because once the shooting started and they realized it was shooting, there was no hesitation, no confusion, no chaos — they just immediately sprang into action and went through all the steps you’re supposed to go through,” he said. “The one tricky part… is that because I’m a [community college professor], it was not my classroom.”
“And so the teacher whose classroom it is had the key to the door, so we could not lock it. And protocol said to lock it,” Topham continued. “Since we could not lock it, some of the students pushed a big bookshelf in front of the door. And then they got ambitious and just kept piling desks in front of it.”
ABC News also interviewed Addison Wright, a student who was in Topham’s classroom during the shooting.
“Well, I was in the classroom and all of a sudden we heard these shots,” she said. “And then we heard people screaming so then — we all got up and we ran to the wall and we just sat there.
She said everyone was “pretty scared” knowing they could not lock the door but then Topham “had this great idea to move the bookshelf in front of the door, so we did that. And then we just waited.”
Wright later added, “As soon as we turned off the lights I started texting people, and people were texting me, and then I was letting people borrow my phone so they could text their parents.”
Asked who she texted first and what she said, Wright responded that the first person she texted was her mother.
“I told her what was happening and I asked her if she could come here and I told her I loved her.”
Watch above, via ABC News.
