Newtown Teacher Recounts What Happened In Classroom During School Massacre
NEWTOWN, Conn. (CBSNewYork) -- In the midst of the sadness following the deadly Connecticut school massacre, stories of tremendous heroism are emerging.
One of the heroes, a kindergarten teacher, was in Sandy Hook Elementary School with her class when the gunfire erupted on Friday morning.
"My assistant and I heard some noises, which did sound like gunshots," Janet Vollmer told CBS 2's Dick Brennan.
Vollmer was teaching her kindergarten class when someone engaged the public address system. She heard what sounded like gunfire, but tried to keep her kids distracted.
Despite the children hearing the gunshots, Vollmer said she tried keep the children calm by telling them a custodian was probably on the roof retrieving a soccer ball.
But to Vollmer and her two teacher aides, it was clear something was terribly wrong. She said they drew the shades and locked the classroom door. She said some of her 19 little ones were getting worried.
"Children started to say at one point, 'I'm scared,'" Vollmer said.
After about a half hour, police made it to their room and it was time to escort the children out of the classroom and through a potentially terrifying scene.
"As I'm going by the hallway, I as the grownup -- I do spot blood on the floor. So I know that things aren't good." Vollmer said. "I don't know whether any of them saw that -- we kept going."
At last the class made it to safety. But when some other parents approached Vollmer looking for their children, she could not be reassuring.
"Those parents were coming to me 'Did you see' so and so," Vollmer said. "[I said] 'no.'"
Vollmer said the number one job she had on Friday was to keep her students safe. They all got out of the school.
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