Florida shooting survivor calls out teacher as ‘coward’
More than two weeks after the high-school shooting massacre in Parkland, Fla., anger and second-guessing continue to simmer there, with one student tweeting his teacher was a “coward” — triggering an online war of words.
Math teacher Jim Gard left “75% of his students out in the hallway to be slaughtered,” junior Josh Gallagher claimed on Twitter on Feb. 28.
None of Gard’s students would die in the Valentine’s Day shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas HS, which left 14 students and three faculty slain.
Still, the teacher didn’t unlock the math-class door when his terrified students banged on it from the hallway, even as shots rang out, Gallagher tweeted.
The left-out kids cowered in the hallway “for four total minutes ducking and in fear for our lives,” before a different teacher let them inside another classroom, Gallagher tweeted.
“Omg. I’m so sorry to hear another shameful act of cowardice,” wrote We R Kate Steinle at @No1islistening0.
“Jim Gard must live with what he did,” responded Janeka Smith at @JanekaSmith1.
Meanwhile, the teacher counters that he was only following lockdown protocol — and says he was stunned to find himself publicly flogged on social media.
“I looked back down the hall and no one was around — no one,” Gard insisted to the Sun-Sentinel, describing the moment before he retreated inside his classroom with six of his students.
“You have to close the door. That’s protocol,” Gard told the paper.
Most of his students, 13 in all, had lagged behind during what appeared at first to be a fire drill, Gard said, and weren’t with him as he locked the door.
When the school sound system indicated a “Code Red” lockdown emergency, he and the half-dozen students with him huddled in the dark by his desk. He said he did hear a loud banging on the door at that point.
But “I told the kids we can’t let anyone in,” he told the paper. “We had no idea if it was a [lockdown] drill or not. “By the time I walked over to the door, the banging had stopped.”
Divisiveness and second-guessing is also continuing in the Florida legislature, where in rare weekend voting Saturday state senators debated, then approved, then immediately revoked a two-year moratorium on assault weapons purchases.
The moratorium was approved on a voice vote but then quickly overturned by a roll call vote. That vote “breaks my heart, but we will NOT let this ruin our movement,” shooting survivor Jaclyn Corin, a junior, tweeted.
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