As shock sets in around the world after the Sandyhook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut on Friday, stories about some of the victims begin to emerge.
These five women put their own lives on the line to help their students. Two of them survived to tell their story, three didn’t.
Victoria Soto’s lifelong dream was to become a teacher. Her last moments were spent rushing her students into a closet when she heard gunshots going off.
When the gunman entered the classroom she told him the kids were at a gym class. He killed her before leaving. Victoria had been at Sandy Hook for more than five years.
Victoria Soto saved her class by pushing them into a closet.
Kaitlin Roig survived the tragic events at Sandy Hook Elementary school and, thanks to her bravery, so did 15 children. When she first heard the shots, she quickly ushered her stduents into a tiny bathroom and pulled a bookshelf across the door before locking it. She said she told her students to be “absolutely quiet”.
“I just knew we had to get in there, I just kept telling them it’s going to be OK. We are going to be alright,” she said.
Roig refused to even unlock the bathroom door for police.
“I didn’t believe them,” she said to ABC News, holding back tears. “I told them if they were cops, they could get the key. They did and then [they] unlocked the bathroom.”
Kaitlin Roig didn’t believe it was the police outside.
Mary Sherlach had worked at the school as a psychologist since 1994 and was just one year away from retirement. When the gunshots rang out for the first time, her first instinct was to confront the gunman. She was married for 31 years to her husband and had two adult daughters.
Mary Sherlach’s instinct was to run towards the gunman.
Maryrose Kristopik was another hero at the Sandy Hook shootings. Herself and her class of 20 survived the shooting. She moved the students into a closet and barricaded the door.
Maryrose also used a closet to hide herself and the kids.
Dawn Hochsprung was the principal of the school and ended her life in the same way she lived it, helping kids. Hochsprung died as she lunged at the gunman in an attempt to take him down.
Hochsprung loved organising days where the kids dressed up as their favourite storybook characters, and she’d dress up too. She always addressed letters home to the ‘Sandyhook Family’ and believed the school was a true community.
Hochsprung loved her job and the kids, she died as she stood up to the gunman.
