Newtown Teacher Kept 1st Graders Calm During Massacre

Well, far too many innocent lives were lost today at the elementary school here in It is impossible to know how many children were saved by the courageous actions under fire by the sandy hook... See More

Well, far too many innocent lives were lost today at the elementary school here in It is impossible to know how many children were saved by the courageous actions under fire by the sandy hook elementary teachers and staff. The stories of heroism are only beginning to unfold and diane sawyer met one young teacher with an extraordinary story. I knew it was a shooting immediately. It was just repetitive sounds? Yeah, it sounded like the type of gun that just shoots over and over and over again. I told all of my students that we had to get in the bathroom. It's all I could think of. I put one of my students on top of the toilet. I just knew we had to get in there. Telling them it's going to be okay. You're going to be all right. I pulled the bookshelf, so we were completely barricaded in. Did you tell them to be quiet? Oh yes. I told them to be quiet. I told them we had to be absolutely quiet because I was just so afraid that if he did come in and then he would hear us and he would maybe start shooting the door. I said we have to be absolutely quiet and I said there are bad guys out there now, we need to wait for the good guys. I wanted us to be . And I'm so saddened that there are people in this situation who are not okay. And my heart goes out to anyone who knew anyone that was part of their lives. I just can't imagine. Did they cry? If they started crying, i would take their face and say it's going to be okay. Show me your smile. I really tried to -- one of my students would say things like i nowkhahknow karate, so it's okay. They said to you we want to go home for christmas. Oh yeah. Yep. I just want my mom. Things like that. Just heartbreaking. Because you're hearing -- I've never been a part of anything anywhere near this traumatic. I'm hearing the gunfire in the hallway. I'm thinking I'm the first classroom. Why isn't hi coming -- I'm thinking we're next. In my mind, I'm thinking as a 6-year-old, 7-year-old, what are your thoughts? I'm thinking that I have to almost be the parent. Like, I have to tell them -- so I said to them, I said I need you to know that I love you all very much. And that it's going to be okay. Because I thought that was the last thing they were ever going to hear. I thought we were all going to die. And I don't know if that's okay -- you know, teachers. But I wanted them to know someone loved them and I wanted that to be one of the last things they heard. Not the gunfire in the hallway. It's just so horrible. It's just so horrible. Horrible, horrible. How did you know you were going to be okay? I didn't. What finally happened was the gunfire stopped. The gunfire wasn't that long. So that stopped. But I said we're not going anywhere. We're staying here until someone good comes in and gets us out. So eventually what happened was the police came and started knocking, and obviously I was completely beside myself. I said I don't believe you. You need to put your badges under the door. So they put their badges under the door. I said if you're really a police officer, then you would have a way to get in here. You would have a key or you -- if everything's okay, you would have founds. So he had the keys and he found the right one and he unlocked the door and they got us out to the firehouse to meet up with the rest of the teachers and students waiting for parents to come and pick them up. I think there are a lot of people who wish that -- want all the teachers to know how much it means to them, how much they care about their children. Uh-huh. How could you not?