A student caught up in the horrific shooting attack that struck a Texas high school this morning has spoken out about her harrowing experience. Tenth grader Dakota Shrader explained how she and her classmates were in first period when the shots and out.
“I heard that my friend got shot in the art hall,” Shrader told KHOU 11 through tears. “As soon as the alarms went off everyone started running outside. Next thing you know, everybody looks and you just hear ‘boom, boom, boom.'”
“I ran to the nearest floor so I could hide. I called my mom,” Shrader added. At this point, Dakota’s mom interjected saying that her daughter was having an asthma attack. The distraught young girl said that she was helped to safety by her friend, “Ryan.”
“My friend Ryan helped me get out,” she said. “It was just us two.”
As soon as we got out, we heard it,” Shrader said of the burst of gunfire. “The teacher’s were like ‘get this way, come over here! Everybody was yelling ‘run, go, as fast as you can.'”
“My friend got injured,” Dakota explained. “She got shot in the leg. I don’t know where she is. She’s 17. She was in the art hallway. She just got shot. Next thing you know all the art windows are getting shot at – they are shattered.”
When asked about whether this poor young girl had experienced anything like this before, she replied, “No, never in my life have I ever experienced anything like this. I’ve experienced bullying but that’s nothing compared to this at all.”
In another interview clip posted by Fox News, Shrader candidly explained how she “shouldn’t be going through this,” because, quite simply, “it’s my school!”
Dakota Shrader, Santa Fe High School student: "I shouldn't be going through this. It's my school. This is my daily life. I shouldn't have to feel like that." https://t.co/kiDgZSp1MN pic.twitter.com/acwYsesFrV
— Fox News (@FoxNews) May 18, 2018
“Like, this is my daily life, I shouldn’t have to feel like that. I feel scared to even go back. It’s just not something you should feel throughout the day, being scared – especially somewhere where we say the pledge of allegiance. It just shouldn’t feel like this.”
“There are multiple fatalities that have been confirmed, between 8 to 10 fatalities including students and staff,” Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzales said in a press conference. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to the entire Santa Fe community.”
Another hero was a teacher who pulled the fire alarm. As recorded by Love What Matters:
Student Damon Rabon told CBS News he was “at least 2 doors down” from the shooting, and “could clearly hear the shots” being fired. He credits his teacher’s quick thinking for alerting the rest of the school to the dangerous situation to safely “get everyone out.”
“The teacher actually ran and pulled the fire alarm because we had no service to call 911 to let anyone know there was a shooter because our wing is completely almost separate from the rest of the school,” Rabon described. “My teacher ran out of of the classroom and pulled the fire alarm while we were barricading the door.”
Prayers for everyone involved.