Actress Melissa Joan Hart shared a harrowing experience guiding frightened students to safety after a school shooting in Nashville on Monday. In an emotional Instagram video, Hart revealed that she and her husband, Mark Wilkerson, were driving to parent-teacher conferences at her children’s nearby school when they noticed children sprinting away from The Covenant School.
Tragically, three children and three staff members were killed at the school during the shooting, which was carried out by a 28-year-old former student armed with two assault rifles and a handgun. The shooter was eventually killed by police at the scene.
Hart’s video detailed the couple’s experience in helping a class of kindergartners to safety. “They were climbing out of the woods. They were trying to escape the shooter situation at their school,” the actor said, tearfully. “So we helped all these tiny little kids cross the road and get to their teachers… We helped a mom reunite with her children.”
Hart and Wilkerson are parents of three children, Mason, Braydon, and Tucker, and had previously lived near Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, where 26 people were killed in a mass shooting in 2012. “So this is our second experience with a school shooting with our kids being in close proximity,” Hart said. “Luckily, we are all OK.”
The Nashville shooting has once again brought the issue of gun violence and school safety to the forefront, with calls for stricter gun control measures and improved security in schools.
“I don’t just don’t know what to say anymore,” she said, adding, “enough is enough. And just pray. Prayer for the families.”
The victims of the shooting were identified as three children, Evelyn Dieckhaus, William Kenney, and Hallie Scruggs, all 9-year-old students, as well as 61-year-old custodian Michael Hill, substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, 61, and school principal Katherine Koonce, 60. Hart urged her followers to pray for the families affected by the tragedy and to take action to prevent further acts of violence.
