Unselfish Acts by People in Harm's Way


An un-named girl, realizing the killers wanted to shoot Athletes, jumps on top of a boy with a sports logo on his tee-shirt. Her actions covered his body from the killer's eyes.

Dave Sanders (the only teacher slain) - "He saved my life," one student said. "Then there was this kid who got shot in the leg, and Mr. Sanders dragged him to the side so he wouldn't be shot again. He was the one jumping over the kids, getting people out of the way. Now we'll never see him again."
After telling students to get down, then running to help others, he was shot by the killers. He was pulled away by several students and the last thing Sanders said to them as the SWAT team led them out of the science room after 3-1/2 hours was: "Tell my daughter I love her."

Also heroes were two janitors, Jon Curtis and Jay Gallentine who put themselves in the line of fire amid the pandemonium of the cafeteria. "It seemed like they were ready to risk their lives for us kids," one of the students said.

Adam Foss, 18, was in the choir room on the second floor when a classmate returned from the hallway drinking fountain with the news of advancing gunmen. Turning back to the choir room, he yelled for everyone - about 60 students - to get into the adjacent office. When several froze, he and a few other older boys quickly became a team and physically lifted them out of their chairs and guided them into the office and barricaded the door.

Science teacher Kent Friesen grabbed students from the hallway and pulled them into a classroom. Friesen took bulbs from emergency lights and repeatedly went into the hall. He got dry chemical fire extinguishers, which he planned on using as weapons should the killers try to come into the room.

In Science Room 3, chemistry teacher Theresa Miller had chaperoned about 60 more students to safety.

In another part of the building, Adam Foss' twin brother, Nick Foss, checked two wounded classmates, both with horrible wounds. There was nothing he could do for them. He looked right into the barrel of a shotgun as it went off, but the pellets missed him. Later he rescued a cook, and several other students and directed them to safety.

Daniel Lee Rohrbough, 15, held an exit door open long enough for a group of his classmates to get out of the line of fire. Daniel was not able to get out himself; he was shot an killed after helping others escape.

Crystal Woodman, 16, said Seth Houy, covered her with his body, and told her he would take a bullet to protect her. They were lucky; the killers passed by them.

Joshua Lapp is also on the long hero list. While the shooting was going on, Lapp jumped on top of two female students, shielding them with his body and saving their lives. A bullet passed within inches of him.

Littleton Fire Department paramedics, Monte Fleming, Jerry LoSasso and John Aylward, put themselves in the line of fire by the killers to rescue Lance Kirklin (critically wounded) and Sean Graves. The two students were standing with Daniel Rohrbough (killed), when they were cut down outside the school by the killers.

Patti Nielsen, an art teacher, was standing by Brian Anderson when they heard shots outside. They went to investigate and saw Harris, who turned and fired at them. Nielsen was grazed by a bullet, pushed Anderson down, and ran for the library where she knew there was a phone. Her 911 call was the first received about an "incident" at Columbine. While talking with 911, she continued to yell for the students to get under tables and keep their heads down. While on the phone for 26 minutes, she heard the shooting and the killing (10 in the library) and wounding of students. Narrowly escaping death, she hid for over 3 hours waiting on the SWAT team to rescue them.


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