Heroic Teacher Shot Three Times As He Tackled Gunman To Save His Class

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A heroic teacher was shot three times as he tackled a gunman to the floor, saving the lives of his students in the process, during the Noblesville shooting on 25 May.

Jason Seaman was teaching a science class at a middle school in Indiana when one of his students returned from the bathroom with two guns and opened fire, letting off four to six shots.

You can watch an ABC News report from the scene below:

Two were injured in the attack, including 29-year-old Seaman, whose quick thinking certainly saved the lives of more of his innocent students.

Seventh-grader Ethan Stonebraker told the Associated Press:

Our science teacher immediately ran at him, swatted a gun out of his hand and tackled him to the ground.

If it weren’t for him, more of us would have been injured for sure.

Seaman managed to tackle the suspect to the ground before the unidentified shooter was detained and taken into custody by Indiana police.

The victims and their parents were frantic, according to Sgt. John Perrine, the Indiana State Police Public Information Officer in Central Indiana.

He tweeted from the @ISPIndianapolis account to say:

A 13-year-old girl was shot in the attack and taken to hospital.

The teacher’s family have confirmed he’s undergone surgery and is doing ‘well’, while the teenage girl’s current condition is unknown.

In a written statement, Seaman confirmed his injuries, praised the work of first responders and thanked his students.

https://twitter.com/lindseyyfaust/status/1000128078532792327/

The statement reads:

First of all, thank you to the first responders from Noblesville and Fishers for their immediate action and care.

I want to let everyone know that I was injured but am doing great. To all students, you are all wonderful and I thank you for your support.

You are the reason I teach.

Kristi Seaman, the wounded teacher’s mother, took to Facebook on Friday afternoon to give concerned friends and family an update on Jason’s recovery.

She wrote:

Jason is out of surgery and is doing well… 3 shots – 1 through the abdomen, 1 in the hip & 1 in the forearm. PLEASE pray for the student that was also shot.

A GoFundMe has been set up for Jason.

Police have not revealed the shooter’s identity nor will they say how they think the suspect got the guns into the school.

The shooter is rumoured to have been around 13 years old, thus, it’s unclear who owned the weapons. For now, the children who witness this atrocity must be helped to heal by making American schools safer.

After the Parkland shooting, UNILAD asked child psychotherapist, Dr Valerie Sinason about the unique trauma children suffer after school shootings.

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She said:

From Columbine onwards this is a particular American tragedy with post traumatic stress disorder being the largest result.

While some with huge support networks and lucky personalities escape relatively unscathed, PTSD symptoms can last for years. However the community trauma adds to the pain of the child victims.

Also those closest to young people killed have the highest symptoms.

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This is a sad fact Mary-Hollis Inboden knows only too well.

The then 12-year-old from Jonesboro, Arkansas, had never heard the term ‘active shooter’ or ‘mass shooting’ when she woke up to go to school on the morning of March 24, 1998.

On that fateful Tuesday, two of her classmates at Westside Middle School would open fire, injuring ten innocent people, and killing five more, including her best friend Paige Herring, who was also just 12.

Thirteen months later, Columbine happened.

Mary Hollis told UNILAD she’s thought of the shooting every day for the past 20 years:

I think people outside of the trauma of a shooting have this gift – this lucky gift – of only thinking about these events when the next one occurs. For my classmates and I though, that’s definitely not the case.

It often feels like the outside world still thinks I’m 12, like I’m forever one of those kids on that playground. We’re adults walking through life, and it’s always right there.

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Explaining how ‘societal denial of such dangers adds to the problem’, alongside a lack of ‘adequate school counselling provision’, Dr Sinason concludes; ‘Access to guns is the primary cause of danger’.

Police have confirmed the suspect may appear in juvenile court as late as Tuesday 29 May.

If you have a story to tell, contact UNILAD via [email protected].

Francesca Donovan

A former emo kid who talks too much about 8Chan meme culture, the Kardashian Klan, and how her smartphone is probably killing her. Francesca is a Cardiff University Journalism Masters grad who has done words for BBC, ELLE, The Debrief, DAZED, an art magazine you’ve never heard of and a feminist zine which never went to print.