'Get down': Teacher describes how she and her students survived the Uvalde mass shooting
Nicole Ogburn, who spoke exclusively to the American-Statesman and Paste BN, said she has been crying since Tuesday's attack but that on Friday her sadness turned into anger.
UVALDE, Texas — The lights are off in Nicole Ogburn's Robb Elementary School classroom. Her fourth graders are enjoying a Disney movie.
There is a thud. Ogburn figures it's noise from a custodian.
More thuds. She peeks out the window. There is a man, armed with a gun.
She orders her students to the ground.
"Get down," she says. Just as they had rehearsed in active shooter drills — the fourth graders are trained on how to stay alive.
Now more gunfire echoes down the hallway. Ogburn and her 15 students — five others were off campus at the time — hide behind a shelf and hold hands. They whisper prayers. Four doors away, an 18-year-old gunman enters a classroom. He kills 19 students and two teachers.
"I lost my babies and my friends," she said.
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As students huddled quietly, Ogburn called 911 using her watch — too afraid to crawl to her desk to grab her cellphone. After first failing to establish a connection, she finally reaches a dispatcher.
She pleads for help, then quickly hangs up, fearful she will tip off the killer.
Suddenly, two officers arrive and guard the door. Ogburn and her students escape through a window.
"I was waiting for him (the gunman) to come in," Ogburn said Friday. "For some reason, God was there and watching over my classroom."
Ogburn, who spoke exclusively to the American-Statesman and Paste BN, said she has been crying since Tuesday's attack but that on Friday her sadness turned into anger.
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As students inside Uvalde classroom called 911, police failed to act
After watching a press conference in which state leaders criticized the local police response, Ogburn came to the school hoping to speak with Texas Department of Public Safety chief Steve McCraw.
McCraw, whose department is leading an investigation into the massacre, told reporters that responding officers should have rushed into the school to confront the shooter.
He said the school district's police chief erred in ordering officers to wait for a team with better equipment and training to arrive.
McCraw said he does not yet know if the delayed response might have led to additional casualties. Around an hour passed before the tactical team assembled behind a shield, entered the classroom where the shooter was holed up and killed him.
"It was the wrong decision," McCraw said of the delay.
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The criticism seemed at odds with the glowing comments Gov. Greg Abbott had made immediately after the shooting when he heralded law enforcement's bravery. On Friday, the governor made an astonishing admission.
"I was misled," Abbott said.
Earlier Friday, Ogburn said that "we need to quit putting blame on law enforcement and this person and that person. The blame is on the shooter. That's it."
McCraw revealed the means by which the shooter, Salvador Ramos, entered the school: through a door another teacher left unlocked after going outside when Ramos crashed a truck into a ditch.
Ogburn shared that she had left her classroom door unlocked during the attack after the class returned from an awards ceremony.
"I just forgot," she said.
Ogburn stopped by the school Friday, then headed out to meet those who really wanted to see her — her students. Some of the children planned to meet with a counselor. The kids asked that she be there for comfort.
Ogburn grew up in Uvalde, graduated from Uvalde High and has taught at Robb Elementary for six years. She said she's not sure if she'll return next year. She said her husband — her high school sweetheart and father of their two daughters — has a different take.
"My husband's telling me, if they have to go back, shouldn't I have to go back?"