That’s ridiculous. People should step in to help – of course, it doesn’t help in this country when they’re afraid they will be sued if they hurt the attacker.
Anyway though, here’s an example of the opposite occuring:
Students subdue teacher’s attacker
Heritage high teens disarm man with knife
By DONNA WILLIAMS LEWIS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Debbie Shultz’s class had just finished a Spanish II final exam Wednesday morning when the door to their trailer burst open with a bang.
Shultz’s estranged husband stood wild-eyed in the doorway, teeth gritted, pausing almost for dramatic effect, she recalled. Then he rushed toward her, she said, raising a large knife toward her chest.
That’s when Shultz’s students, 16- and 17-year-old kids, went to her rescue. Several of the youngsters tackled the man, pinning him to the floor and wresting the knife from his hand.
“Those kids are my heroes. I believe God used them to save my life,” Shultz, 46, said Wednesday evening, recuperating at home with stitches in her hand and leg where her assailant slashed her with the knife.
“I’m sorry that they were called upon to do such a huge job so early in their lives, but without them I wouldn’t be alive.”
The scene Wednesday at Rockdale County’s Heritage High School, with news trucks and helicopters circling the campus, was an eerie reminder of spring 1999, when a 15-year-old boy opened fire at the school, shooting six students before surrendering to an assistant principal.
Shultz was there then. She remembers running across T.J. Solomon’s line of fire to warn members of the Fellowship of Christian Youth, meeting nearby, not to leave their classroom.
But school and law enforcement officials emphasized that Wednesday’s attack grew out of a domestic dispute and no students were in immediate danger.
Theodore Franklin Shultz, 51, of Conyers is being held in the Rockdale County Jail on charges of aggravated assault, aggravated stalking, cruelty to children, disrupting a school and carrying a weapon on school property.
Debbie Shultz said she is in the final stages of divorcing her husband of seven years and had a restraining order against him. She said her husband had been released Monday from a mental institution that failed to notify her.
A couple of weeks earlier, police were called to a Conyers Wal-Mart after Theodore Shultz grabbed an unloaded shotgun off a shelf and brandished it.
Class reacted quickly
Heritage High Principal Greg Fowler praised the students who went to Debbie Shultz’s aid.
“They love Ms. Shultz,” Fowler said. “When a teacher has a relationship with the students, this is the payoff.”
Nimesh Patel, 17, was taking a nap after finishing his final when he heard screaming and the scampering of fleeing students. He saw his teacher trying to fend off her assailant.
“I froze there for a second. Me and a couple of other guys grabbed him and threw him to the ground and basically sat on him until the cops came,” he said.
Several other students helped Patel subdue the attacker. They included Austin Hutchinson, 16; John Bailey, 16; Andy Anderson, 17; Matt Battaglia, 17; and Scott Wigington, 17.
As Hutchinson saw the man pull the knife, “I thought I could run like the rest of the people or I could help,” the student said. “It’s just not right leaving her there.”
Hutchinson and Wigington, son of Rockdale County Sheriff Jeff Wigington, were the first to reach the assailant. Wigington grabbed the hand holding the knife.
The others helped push the man to the ground, at which point Wigington took the knife away from him. The six boys then kept him pinned to the ground.
Patel said Debbie Shultz, who helped pin the man down, didn’t want to leave the room.
“She was scared he would hurt us. We told her to get out,” said Patel. “She was more worried about us than herself.”
Back in school today?
After the assailant was taken into custody, the students were provided counseling and allowed to go home if they wanted. Patel remained in school to take his chemistry and history finals.
Shultz hugged her sobbing students as she was taken away, letting them know she was OK.
She said she plans to return to her classroom today – after she goes by the courthouse to sign final papers for her divorce.
“I’m definitely going to school tomorrow, to thank my kids for being heroes, to let them know I’m OK and that bad things happen to good people.”
Staff writers Jen Sansbury and Ben Smith contributed to this article