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Parent of Sandy Hook victim tells Rock Hill educators, ‘You are first responders'

ROCK HILL, S.C. — As schools prepare to welcome students back, the lessons of horrific school shootings are on the minds of educators.

In Rock Hill, 2,400 teachers and staff from elementary up to high school took part in a unique, large-scale drill on Thursday.

The scenario of the drill was not about a school shooting and was meant to provide training in the aftermath of any incidents on campus.

The highlight of the day was a mother who has been in those mass shooting situations.

Michelle Gay’s 7-year-old daughter Josephine was killed in the mass shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012.

Gay was in Rock Hill Thursday as a room full of educators were silent as she discussed the horrible details of that mass shooting.

There were emotions and tears as she showed pictures of the school, the response and her child.

Gay said it's not the big political movements and passing new laws that may make the most difference, but little things like shutting a door or thinking about the way classes are set up and ways to escape.

She said people need to think of protection first.

Gay said in Newtown, first responders came to school for career days, but they weren't part of drills and didn't work hand-in-hand with schools to prepare for emergencies.

"We didn't think we had to worry there in 'Mayberry,’” Gay said. “We didn't have gang problems or crime or things like that to worry about.  We all knew we were OK because it couldn't happen there. Now we know, that's just not true."

Gay speaks around the country about the Sandy Hook shooting, about her daughter, about being prepared, and not just at school.

"When they walk into a theater, a grocery store, a house of worship, a school, that they're walking in with safety in mind," Gay said.

They practiced a reunification drill where they experience the stressful process of reuniting kids with their parents during a major incident at school.

Teachers played the role of students, each getting an ID card with the name of a student on it.

They boarded buses and are driven to a safe off-campus location where they then had to follow instructions and learned how to safely find their parents.

Mt. Holly Elementary School teacher James Long said it provided a unique perspective for him.

"I will get to know firsthand what it will be like, as a second-grader, trying to find my parents in an emergency situation," he said.

Teachers are realizing there's more to what they do than classroom education, and some of their duties have been forced on them.

"I'm not just a teacher. I'm here to protect them," Long said.

It may sound like an upsetting way to go back to class, but teachers think about tragic situations because they have to.

"When I was a child, I never thought about that,” said Barbara Wenham, a nurse at Mt. Gallant Elementary School. “These are scary times that these kids live in.”

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