(Screen Capture: CNN)
12-year-old Nate Holley was one of the students who survived this week’s mass shooting at a Denver-area charter school, and he brought the terror of his experience to life during an appearance on Wednesday’s edition of CNN Newsroom With Brooke Baldwin.
What Nate shared with host Brooke Baldwin and CNN viewers was remarkable. Describing the scene inside the classroom where he hid, hand on a metal baseball bat, ready to “go down fighting” if necessary.
“So, Nate, how are you doing?” Baldwin asked.
“I’m doing okay,” Nate said. “It was incredibly scary during it, and at least half the kids in my class broke into tears when it started happening. It was incredibly scary, and our teacher had us hide in the closet.”
“I would have been so so scared, and can I just say you are so brave to be standing there with me today, and I so, I am so in awe of you,” Baldwin said. “Can you take me back to yesterday, and tell me what happened?”
“So, I have some sensitive, I have sensitive ears, so they shot out the doors, and I heard the gunshots, and I just kind of froze,” Nate said, “and then the siren came on, and our teacher, and somebody started cracking a joke, and The teacher told them to shut up, and then she had us hide behind her desk.”
“And when the shooter got closer, she moved us into the closet,” he continued. “I was hiding in the corner, and they were right outside the door. I had my hand on a metal baseball bat just in case. Cuz I was going to go down fighting if I was going to go down.”
Baldwin asked if drills at the school had prepared Nate for the shooting.
“No, it was really chaotic,” said Nate. “This has never happened to me before, and I was really unsure. We had a drill, like, once or twice this year, but I didn’t know, most of the kids didn’t know what to do.”
Baldwin concluded the interview with a sobering fact: This is the 35th school shooting since fall of last year.
WIBC host Tony Katz was impressed with Nate’s bravery.
“That is not an easy interview to do, but I have to focus on the fact that a 12-year-old had his hand a baseball bat and was ready to go down swinging. On this subject, this gives me a moment of faith. It’s madness, I agree, and it is cultural. It is about how we are teaching our children to deal with their problems.
But somehow I am remarkably comforted that a 12-year-old looked at the situation and said, ‘You know what? I’m going to do what I can.’
The student who was shot and killed was killed because they had pinned the student against the wall. Another student wrestled the gun away from the shooter, but in pinning the shooter against the wall, he was killed. But the students fought back for their lives.
I don’t want them shot at, and I still say the problem is cultural, but there is something to the bravery of these children and their willingness to take action to protect their lives and the lives of those around them. That’s something we can build upon.”
Click the link below to hear Tony’s full commentary in today’s Popcorn Moment.
