Melissa Falkowski is being hailed a hero after the quick-thinking language arts teacher packed 19 students in a supply closet to protect them from the gunman at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Wednesday.
The massacre in Florida killing at least seventeen is the latest of mass shootings to strike the country, but it’s the hero stories arising amidst the chaos that is giving America a ray of hope.
Like assistant football coach Aaron Feis who died shielding students from bullets, Falkowski, too, put the life of the children above her own as former student Nikolas Cruz opened fire with an AR-15.
“I unlocked the door and let the kids in,” Falkowski said in an interview with MSNBC. “We followed the procedure to disappear, to move out of sight. I made the decision to move the kids into the closet. It was tight. We were in there for about 30 minutes.”
She told the students to stay put until they heard an announcement or the SWAT team came to get them.
“The kids were really scared; some of them were crying,” she said.
this was my teacher. i was in that closet. having to feel that fear and see all those people think they’re going to die is something no person should experience. https://t.co/4ysyB6HHHO
— Delaney Tarr (@delaneytarr) February 15, 2018
Thankfully, they had just had training on what to do in these types of emergencies about a month ago, and Falkowski believes that helped them handle the alarming situation.
“We had training about a month ago and we talked about these different scenarios and what to do,” she said. “It was very obvious that it wasn’t a drill. I made the decision that [the supply closet] was another layer between us and the active shooter.”
“On a personal level, it was really hard for me,” said Falkowski, explaining that her mom called in the middle of it all, adding to her angst while she was trying to take care of the kids.
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But unwilling to let her own fears get the best of her, the teacher swallowed her emotions and remained calm and collected in the face of danger.
“It doesn’t help if I’m sitting there crying too,” she shared, “so I just kept telling them that it was going to be okay, and they were okay, and everything was going to be okay, and that helped I guess for them to get through it.”
Since her story surfaced, several grateful students have come forward to thank the brave teacher for saving their lives.
“I am so thankful for Mrs Falkowski who kept me and the 18 other students safe and calm,” tweeted Becca Schneid. “I couldn’t be more grateful to her and everyone else that helped me survive today.”
I am so thankful for Mrs Falkowski who kept me and the 18 other students safe and calm. I couldn’t be more grateful to her and everyone else that helped me survive today. https://t.co/l1p7UNt8TX
— Becca Schneid (@becca_schneid) February 15, 2018
“Melissa Falkowski is an amazing educator who deserves praise for what she did. I had multiple panic attacks while locked in the closet with 19 other people for numerous hours,” another student, Emma Dowd wrote to Love What Matters.
“She reiterated many times that I would be safe and she won’t let anything happen to me. I spend a lot of time with Falkowski as she advises the newspaper, which I’m one editor-in-chief of. She constantly checked up on me and kept me calm even when there were nearly 160 of us in the library after all the classes got searched. I’m eternally grateful for strong and caring educators like her. She not only cared for me, but also the 160 kids in the classroom with us along with her other faculty.”
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All the praise to this fast-acting superwoman who really brought John 15:13 to life by risking her own life to save others.
“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
See more from her inspiring story of heroism and bravery in the MSNBC interview below:
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