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educators stop gunman It could have been a Columbine 
Feb. 25, 2004 East Greenbush TA President Mary Catellier, right, says members are deeply grateful for the actions of, from left, assistant principal John Sawchuk and teacher Michael Bennett. Related stories:
Only two letters separate "Columbia" from "Columbine." Just two letters - and a blessedly different outcome when a shooter opened fire in Columbia High School's halls on Feb. 9. That terrible morning in suburban Rensselaer County, a teacher was injured - but thanks to two educators' heroics and a tightly executed lockdown plan, not a single life was lost. Some said it was grace, others happenstance, but at the end of the day, there were hugs, not heartbreak. Feb. 9 dawned like any other upstate winter morning: 17 degrees, gray, overcast. By 10:30 a.m., the 1,500 students at Columbia High in East Greenbush were midway through their fifth-period classes in the three-story, red-brick building when two loud bangs sounded in the south wing. Some teachers assumed it was an explosion in technology class or random construction noise from major renovations under way throughout the school. Math teacher Nicole Newman, who was alone in a teacher workroom in the south wing, heard two blasts and the sounds of students running. She figured some kid had set off fireworks. Newman headed for the door to identify the pranksters but, as she went to open it, a voice inside her head said, "Wait a moment." She paused, her hand on the knob. Seconds later, when she opened the door, she saw the back of a large male figure walking away from her and carrying a gun. A few seconds earlier, they would have been face to face. "He had a 12-gauge shotgun. I saw the barrel and the butt," Newman said. She made a wise and rapid assessment - he was over six feet, she's a petite 5'2" - and as quietly as possible, she closed the door, went under a desk, and pulled out her cell phone. She had no idea if the shooter was alone or if he had returned outside the door, but she knew she had to sound an alarm. Newman dialed 911 and began to speak. At 10:30 a.m John Sawchuk, assistant principal at Columbia, was observing a teacher in the south tower of the school - an impromptu appointment because an earlier one had been scrapped due to a snow day. When he heard two loud noises, his first thought was a gas explosion in technology class. Sawchuk, a former quarterback at Mont Pleasant High in Schenectady in the late '70s, ran out of the classroom and headed toward the noise, calling to teachers now emerging from their rooms to get back inside. Two doors away from Sawchuk, special education teacher Michael Bennett asked his aides to watch his students, then raced toward the noise, stopping only to direct a few students back into class. The two educators converged, Bennett behind Sawchuk, and rounded a corner into the next hall. "I didn't expect to find someone with a gun when I turned the corner," Sawchuk said. But the scene was every teacher's worst nightmare: a hall hazy with smoke from the blasts of two gunshots and a student with a gun. Lockdown alert Back at the main office, social studies teacher Henry Kolakoski, who also is the district safety coordinator, just happened to have stopped by to see if someone had found his misplaced keys. He and assistant principal Timothy Cranell spotted a bunch of students running from the south building. The pair headed over and were met by a district hall monitor who told them, "There's a person inside with a gun." Immediately, they went to the main office and instituted an armed intruder lockdown. Educators knew what to do: They had practiced many times as part of the school's well-honed safety plan. "Teachers were throwing bookcases in front of the door and covering windows," said math teacher Mary Catellier, who works next to Bennett and is president of the East Greenbush TA, an affiliate of New York State United Teachers. "The room I was in faced out. I saw SWAT people and a helicopter at eye level ... They did not know if he (the shooter) was working alone. I had visions of Columbine." Teachers barricaded themselves and students inside classrooms, pulling bookcases and tables in front of doors. Students hid under desks in the back of the rooms. Within scant minutes, school became a place where only that morning parents had sent their kids, wondering about nothing more than the temperature of their teenage attitudes and now - alerted by the converging media - feared for their lives. A third blast Back in the south wing, time opened up as actions kaleidoscoped. Sawchuk looked at the shooter - "He hesitated, I didn't" - and threw himself at the gunman as he turned the 12-gauge rifle toward Bennett. On the long way down to the floor, a blast hit Bennett's leg as the gun was fired a third time. Sawchuk wrestled the shooter, later identified by police as 16-year-old Columbia student Jon Romano, to the ground and yelled for help. An injured Bennett fell to the ground and partway into the classroom of social studies teacher Sue Owens. Students and teachers rushed to help. The burly assistant principal wrenched away the gun and handed it off to teachers. Medical response Within moments, health office assistant Sheila Reilly, a member of the East Greenbush School-Related Professionals, and registered nurse Mary Gause, substituting in the nurse's office, had raced to the shooting scene with supplies. No one yet knew if the school was safe - at Columbine there had been two shooters - but Bennett said, "it was unbelievable how they responded," starting an IV for the injured teacher. Outside, the event had become a regional sensation. Police swarmed the school and SWAT teams converged on the site. Capital region residents watched in shock as video cameras showed Bennett being transported to a hospital by a local rescue squad. NYSUT First Vice President Antonia Cortese and Second Vice President Walter Dunn arrived soon thereafter to offer the union's help at the East Greenbush middle school, where students and teachers were transported after the lockdown. Cortese, representing President Tom Hobart who was in western New York the morning of the shooting, praised the calm and professional demeanor of staff during the terrifying ordeal. She spoke with local union leaders, who assured her that Bennett's injuries were not life-threatening and that - amazingly - there had been no other injuries. The gunman had fired two previous shots but none had hit students or staff. In the middle of the conversation in the teachers' lounge, Cortese's cell phone rang. It was state Education Commissioner Richard Mills who was also following the media reports. Assuming Cortese would be at the school, he had called her to ask her to "share with the teachers my grave concern for their well-being." She did. And "it wasn't until several hours later that I got shaky, thinking about what could have happened," Cortese said. "It's a school, and students and staff are supposed to be safe. But on that day, everyone was in danger. "That was a scary thought. Most kids go to school every day and they're safe. When something as aberrant as this happens, it shakes you." Back with his students Four days after being shot, Bennett, who had been treated and released at a local hospital, stepped back into the school for a few hours, gingerly hobbling up and down stairs. His leg has pieces of birdshot in it which likely will remain. He came to reassure his special education students that he is OK. A few students spotted him in the hall, and reached out impulsively to give Bennett strong hugs. After spending days sequestered at home with his wife Noreen, an elementary teacher for Troy city schools, and their two children, ages 4 and four months, he admitted that the ordeal "has been a lot harder than I thought." Speaking carefully and emotionally, Bennett looked at Sawchuk with the furrowed focus of a man who saw death blink - at him. "I was extremely fortunate. Sawchuk saved my life," Bennett said, overcome. "This is a great story about teachers protecting kids," Sawchuk said. "You do what you need to do. "Someone's watching over us," Sawchuk added. Keeping schools safe In the aftermath of the shooting, information and opinion abound. Police say Romano is a troubled young man who had fantasized about shooting individuals at the school. "As terrible as this is, it could have been far worse," said NYSUT Second Vice President Walter Dunn. "We got very lucky. You don't know what would have happened if they had not wrestled the student to the ground." He credited the statewide Safe Schools Act, also called Project SAVE, for putting mechanisms in place to protect the staff and students at Columbia High School. SAVE, which NYSUT advocated, passed in 2000. It includes codes of conduct, character education and bully prevention programs, evacuation plans, intruder drills, violence prevention and safety planning. "That's why there are terms like lockdown. We wouldn't have had that 10 years before," said Dunn. "NYSUT and its members have always fought for the strongest safety measures for students and staff and we will continue to do so," Cortese said. "We must redouble our efforts to make sure that all schools are safe and orderly places for learning." NYSUT President Hobart is not alone in describing educators Bennett and Sawchuk as heroes. (See President's Perspective, page 8.) The Board of Regents planned to recognize them Feb. 23. Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, R-Brunswick, in announcing that the Senate would pass a resolution in their honor, said, "The courageous and heroic actions of John Sawchuk and Michael Bennett saved countless lives." "It has taken them time to understand the elevated recognition they have been receiving," East Greenbush Superintendent Terrance Brewer noted. "They have often said to me: 'I was only doing my job.' What they did was their job in an exemplary, unselfish fashion and it has elevated them to the position - in our hearts, our community, with our students - as true heroes." Brewer also praised "the efforts of all our staff to follow safety plans," calling the satisfactory outcome "a tribute to teaching staff, instructional support staff, custodial staff, school nurses and transportation staff." "Transportation was critical," he said. "We had 37 buses in 15 minutes" to transport about 1,500 students and 200 staff out of the building and to the district's middle school. Catellier was also reflective and full of praise for Sawchuk and Bennett. "It is unbelievable how they reacted and did what they had to do," she said. "Nearly every single room on that hall had a classroom full of kids." - Liza Frenette |
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