Jason Seaman, a seventh grade science teacher, tackled a gunman who entered his classroom in Noblesville, Indiana, and was shot three times as he protected his students.
“A brave science teacher did not hesitate when a student walked into his classroom at Noblesville West Middle School with a pair of handguns and then opened fire.
“Jason Seaman, identified by his mother and students as the hero teacher, was shot three times Friday morning as he lunged at the gunman in a bid to protect his class.
“The shooter fired off several rounds before “Mr. Seaman started running at him, he’s a teacher, a science teacher — he tackled him to the ground,” a student, who did not wish to be identified, told Fox 59.
“He’s a hero. If he didn’t do anything he probably would have continued shooting and a lot more of us would have been injured and possibly killed, so it was just something that most people would not have done but he was really brave to do it.”
Brave indeed!
Jason Seaman joins the honor roll.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Bravo to Jason Seaman, a man of incredible courage and quick thinking. Another day and another school shooting, it’s so insane that I’m at a loss for words to even begin to express my outrage, grief and despair at these recurring blood baths. What in the name of goodness is going on in the minds of these kids who feel the need to kill fellow classmates or anybody who gets in their way?
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I suspect that Jason Seaman will say he was no hero and he only did what had to be done. There was no time to think or reason. He just acted revealing what type of person he is. Only in situations like this one do we find out what we will do.
To all of his students and their parents, Seaman will always be a hero full of courage.
But the greedy corporate Rheeformers of everything public wouldn’t blink an eye as they closed his school and fired him along with all the other public school teachers so they could replace the public school with an inferior, brutal, child abusing, for-profit corporate charter staffed with short-term TFA recruits — revealing who they really are.
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Well said, Lloyd. What a story. What an incredible teacher.
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Shades of the “firing the teacher of the year” stories now growing across the nation.
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Didn’t Trump meet with the teachers of the year from most of the states and that didn’t work out well for him because they arrived with truth to his lies. Since Trump loves to get even with anyone that gets on his wrong side, and that can be anyone for anything, he’s probably behind any movement to fire the teachers of the year from all the states.
Heck, if Trump had the real “button” near his tiny little twitching twitter fingers, every state that voted against him would be a radioactive, smoldering ruin. California would have been his first target.
I think Trump could easily blow up a billion people and lose no sleep from it. Does he sleep?
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I am beginning to think that, for once, Arne might have a point. After everything that has happened, and not happened, since the rampage at Parkland, what parent in their right mind would continue to send their children to the killing fields which we call our public schools. Until our politicians do the obvious, passing laws which keep guns out of the hands of those who have no business having access to them, parents should boycott. This is our Vietnam moment. Had more parents in the ’60s joined in the anti-war, anti-draft movement, perhaps that immoral war would have ended sooner and countless lives would have been saved. Parents, following the lead of the courageous students from Parkland, can, likewise, effect positive change today and save lives with a school boycott.
God bless Mr. Seaman.
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Gary, if parents boycott the schools until Congress passes gun control, that would probably mean two years without schooling. Do you see anyone willing to do this? My guess is that KIPP is standing by to sign up your kids.
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You are probably right, Diane, but maybe, just maybe, after a year or two of no school the parents of this country would elect a new, pro-gun control Congress and President. The teachers walked in West Virginia, Arizona, and elsewhere and got results as democracy has moved from the state houses to the streets. The same could happen for safe schools if the parents became united and said with one voice, Enough!
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I think Gary has a point. Severe situations call for severe actions. Why be so risk-intolerant?
Is what you have now really working for you?
There will be, mark my words, many more deaths from shootings in schools before real change is enacted, and it will come slowly. Those sacrificial lambs . . . . Horrible.
If you are concerned about privatizers diverting kids from public schools into charters, don’t worry; the charters don’t have the capacity to attract and absorb that many kids across the nation.
I say pull out and starve the systemic beast. Teachers will be furious as well as administrators; school boards will be furious, as will many students. Tax payers will be furious, because they will be paying for school operations and services not consumed. Legislators will be furious as will testing companies. Employers will be furious because parents will be more absent from work to care for their kids or they will bring them to work.
Let them all band together and direct their nuclear bomb fury at Congress and the Senate and President, where it squarely belongs.
You Americans have historically been far too nice and polite. You can get militant and muscle bound without becoming violent.
Pulling out is an excellent way to do it. Withdraw the feeding tube and kill the beast . . . .
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It’s time . . . . !
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You have GOT to see this one, Diane. In rural Idaho today, when a high school had a lockdown, parents came to the school ARMED WITH AR-15s and got in the way of law enforcement.
Here is the NRA at work, folks.
https://www.ksl.com/article/46327925/sheriff-you-cant-take-the-law-into-your-own-hands-after-parents-respond-to-school-lockdown-armed-with-rifles
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Lucky they didn’t get into a shootout with ea h other and the police. I don’t know about Idaho, but in NYC, the cops hate to see armed civilians. They are a menace to themselves, to innocent bystanders and to law enforcement.
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That’s what the area sheriff said. One of the parents, with his gun unholstered, started into the school and had an argument with the police!
Luckily, nothing happened, but it could have been a catastrophe. The school custodians had to move school vehicles into the parking lots to keep more armed parents from attempting to enter the school.
The comments are appalling. Most of them are saying that the parents did the right thing. It would be hilarious if it wasn’t so frightening.
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So now we have to start imagining vicious lawsuits coming against parents who shoot and kill by the parents of the kid/s they killed?
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Maybe the parents should come to school with their guns and sit with their children while they go through the school day. Maybe that way teachers won’t be asked to die for their students. Frankly, it makes me angry that teachers are now being asked (and almost required) to save their students in these cases. What if this teacher’s first reaction had been to dive under his desk? What would our discussion look like then? The whole situation is really sick.
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Imagine the scene if bullets start flying. Parents with guns, police with guns, a shooter, everyone shooting.
Schools should not be the OK Corral.
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Anyone walking around with a loaded weapon when they are not hunting and or target/claybird shooting should have their guns taken away. There is no excuse for unethical gun handling like what the parents did there.
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Duane: I LIKE your idea.
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In the OLD WEST, people had to CHECK THEIR GUNS. DUH…has this country gone DAFT?
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AND today’s news is of people running out to their cars to get their guns and take down a restaurant shooter. WHAT could go wrong…
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So now another teacher has survived a shooting and, probably a 13 year old girl is alive. Just how grateful are we as a country that this type of thing can even occur? It will occur over and over and over and over again until some meaningful STRICT gun control laws are passed. This shooting was done by a 7th grader in Jason’s class who brought two handguns.
I’m disgusted with Indiana. There is a gun shop about 15 minutes from my condo. I’ve passed two gun shows in a nearby fairgrounds within the last few months. I’ve seen full page ads to buy guns in the local paper.
All the gun supporters are reaping what happens. Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is pure insanity. No more meaningless political thoughts and prayers to cover up a very dangerous situation.
………………………….
Injured Noblesville teacher thanks students: ‘You are the reason I teach’..Indiana Star newspaper in Indianapolis
Ryan Martin,Arika Herron,Emma Kate Fittes,Tony Cook and Holly V. Hays, IndyStar Published 1:02 p.m. ET May 25, 2018 | Updated 8:05 p.m. ET May 25, 2018
…A Noblesville West Middle School science teacher is being hailed as a hero after students and parents say he intervened as a student opened fire in his classroom Friday morning.
Jason Seaman, a seventh-grade science teacher and football coach, was shot several times after Noblesville police say a boy in his class asked to be excused and returned with two handguns, shooting Seaman and a 13 year old girl.
Multiple students and parents told IndyStar Friday that Seaman stepped in to stop the shooter. It was not immediately clear how he did so.
In a written statement provided to IndyStar by Fox59, Seaman confirmed he was injured and thanking first responders.
“First of all, thank you to the first responders from Noblesville and Fishers for their immediate action and care,” Seaman said. “I want to let everyone know that I was injured but am doing great. To all students, you are all wonderful and I thank you for your support. You are the reason I teach.”
Seaman, 29, has two young children, a toddler son and a one-month-old daughter, his brother told IndyStar.
Seaman’s mother said in a public Facebook post that Seaman was shot in his abdomen, hip and forearm…
Check out this story on IndyStar.com: https://indy.st/2xbEVwp
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Not to take anything away from Mr Seaman, a true fast thinking hero, but let us not be led to believe that each class should have a basketball in it. We need to remember this was middle school. An armed high school student would have been much less rattled and a lot more deadly. The problem here is we have a too easy access to weapons.
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When a teacher or student intervenes to stop bullying or other social problems, in a simple seemingly mundane manner, long before it escalates to a school shooting, how often do we refer to that teacher or student as a hero?
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Aside from the fact that NO ONE that age should have a gun, if the student had had an AR or AK-15, that teacher’s action would most likely not have been possible.
Let’s start this off by DESTROYING/BANNING assault weapons.
&…think of the tragedy that might have occurred w/those armed Idaho parents.
There is NO PLACE IN THE US for assault weapons.
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Define assault weapons. Please!
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My son had a shotgun at that age. And yes, I bought it for him as a present. By that time he had also shot a semi-auto .22 rifle, on that holds 17 rounds in the magazine by that age.
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Duane: My father had a rifle in the closet in our laundry room. He told me to never touch it. I never did. I was totally afraid of it.I don’t know if he ever used it. He inherited it from his father.
We are not a gun loving family although my brother has a hand gun just in case the US military decides to storm his house.
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I know you asked someone else to define what an assault weapon was but I could not resist. :o)
“any of various automatic or semiautomatic firearms; especially: assault rifle”
Merriam-Webster since 1828
“A lightweight rifle developed from the sub-machine gun, which may be set to fire automatically or semi-automatically.”
Oxford Dictionary.com
“A term coined by Violence Policy Center head Josh Sugarmann to describe civilian semiautomatic firearms with a military or fearsome appearance, yet no more lethality than lesser weapons. Derived from the term “assault rifle”, which means a fully automatic, selective fire rate firearm used my military and police personnel.
“Assault weapons’ menacing looks, coupled with the public’s confusion over fully-automatic machine guns versus semi-automatic assault weapons –anything that looks like a machine gun is assumed to be a machine gun– can only increase the chance of public support for restrictions on these weapons.”
Urban Dictionary where people get to vote for the definition they like the best – this one was #1.
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Thanks for the definition, Lloyd.
Interesting definitions. The MW definition is quite broad and would include almost all hunting guns. The Oxford Dictionary definition would certainly trim down the number and types of guns that are considered “assault weapons”. Almost all hunting weapons, rifles, shotguns would not fall under that definition.
As far as the Violence Policy Center’s (VPC) definition is quite open to debate as for me any firearm has a “fearsome” appearance. So it serves to muddy which weapons would be considered “assault weapons” as most hunting weapons either look “military” or fearsome.”
And I’m not sure which definition was “voted” #1. Is it the VPC’s?
Perhaps if someone actually proposed a law that defines the types of guns that some want to prohibit, we could have a rational argument about the law. Now, it’s all a big muddle of emotion laden terms that play on people’s fears. I’m not a fan of using fear in making policy.
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I think the Urban Dictionary is the only one that lets people vote on the definition they like the most. That was the last one of the three.
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I am talking about weapons such as those used at Columbine, Parkland, Sandy Hook & Las Vegas–long-range, high powered weapons meant for military use (AK-15s & others)–not rifles or shotguns. I am not talking about hunting rifles or handguns. I am not talking about guns in areas/states where hunting is common. (Our friend–as adult who lives in KY, but grew up in ILL-Annoy–now lives a
country life, & regularly hunts w/his buddies & his significant other; their freezer is always stocked. He drove here one time & realized, upon opening his trunk, that he had left all his hunting gear in the car.
Glad he wasn’t speeding!)
So–that’s what I mean by assault weapons. Dick’s Sporting Goods, in fact, stopped selling them,
In Chicago, we had a disco music destruction many years ago at what used to be named Comiskey Park (White Sox).
Why can’t we have an assault weapon destruction…everywhere in the U.S.?
(What a silly question, right?–& I, too, have called the NRA a domestic terrorist organization.)
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That “disco demolition” was quite humorous. Remember it well. Never was a big disco fan-but I did coach a woman’s softball team that sponsored by the big disco club in Columbia, MO back then-late 70s.
Yes, Dick’s did that. Perhaps if more did so it might make a small dent in the numbers of weapons out there. Small as in miniscule, but hey it’s a start, right.
“Why can’t we . . . .”
For me, mainly because the definition of “assault weapon” has never been clear.
The reason I ask for clarification on what is an “assault weapon” is because I’ve seen, read, heard many different definitions. As always the devil is in the details, eh. My purpose in asking is to help clarify the debate. The more we can agree on the definitions the better the solution will be, whatever that solution is.
But even “banning assault weapons”, were that to occur, is just a bandaid on this country’s dominant mindset that allows for, cheers on, and glorifies death and destruction at all levels and that permeates society.
Why is there such fear, distrust, anger in society these days that people feel the need to arm themselves so heavily and then fight back against perceived injustices with such violence?
Aside from the constant “selling of fear” by the lame stream media, personally, I believe it has to do with the whole, largely unfettered, capitalist economic system that allows so few to take so much leaving so little for the vast majority. We have become a banana republic in that regard.
What’s the solution? I don’t know, other than if one perceives a problem then attempt to work the political system to effect change (which I know you do). That change may take decades, generations to come to fruition, but what other options do we have, other than to attempt to drop out of society all together, which is almost an impossibility as we are all so interconnected.
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And he (he’s 25 now) knows what gun etiquette is. He’ll leave an area if others do not follow proper handling techniques.
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How about getting rid of the guns so this won’t occur again. It’s not a matter of “IF” it’s a matter of “when and where”. The 13 year old girl who was shot is in critical condition. Those parents can join the club of parents who are shocked over what happened after their child left for school. Where is either Tump’s or Pence’s admission that guns kill and it has to stop? $30 million from the NRA to Trump purchases a lot of loyalty.
………………
[NWI Times] UPDATE: Teacher out of hospital after stopping school shooting
NOBLESVILLE, Ind. — An Indiana science teacher was released from a hospital a day after he was shot while tackling an armed student inside his classroom, a congresswoman said Saturday.
Republican U.S. Rep. Susan Brooks posted a video on Twitter saying she met Jason Seaman during a visit to Noblesville West Middle School.
“He is that hero teacher who stopped the shooter from hurting more young people,” Brooks said.
The only other person shot, student Ella Whistler, was in critical but stable condition, according to her family. They released a statement saying they were still trying to process “what happened and why.”
President Donald Trump sent a tweet Saturday thanking Seaman “for his heroic act in saving so many precious young lives. His quick and automatic action is being talked about all over the world!”
Vice President Mike Pence, the former governor of Indiana, also credited the teacher’s “courageous action” for saving lives during the shooting at the suburban Indianapolis school.
“We’re all proud of you Jason and are praying for you and those impacted and recovering from injuries,” Pence said in his own tweet…
http://www.nwitimes.com/news/state-and-regional/indiana/update-teacher-out-of-hospital-after-stopping-school-shooting/article_47000ccb-3561-5845-9b42-dc1e5d2d359e.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=user-share
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As it is Carol, the gun genie is already out of the brass lamp and the lamp has been melted down for making bullets. That’s just the reality of the situation.
The reality of our situation also is that many are killed every day across the nation by various means (yes, using a weapon is one of the most prevalent). Where is the outrage for those deaths? Is it because many are perceived to be gangbangers, hoodlums and/or otherwise “scum” of the earth that the same outrage isn’t there?
As I have written many times before, until this society confronts its total love affair with everything violent, especially the military and its death and destruction, said violence seeps into the pores of unwitting citizens, the death toll from violent outbursts such as what we see across the nation will continue. Does access to a gun make killing that much easier? No doubt! But, unfortunately, or not, this country won’t ever eliminate guns-at least not in my lifetime or even that of my children.
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Duane: “But, unfortunately, or not, this country won’t ever eliminate guns-at least not in my lifetime or even that of my children.”
I’m still hoping that after enough killings, people will really get fed up. I have no idea what that magic number will be. There will be more killings, some small ones like the 11 year old who was shot in the head in NW Indiana, and big mass killings. Each killing means that a community will begin to question their stance.
There will be a turn around in thinking. When is anybody’s guess. How many innocent people will die before that time arrives? It is a crime but one that has to happen. The love of guns is too ingrained in a society that loves to kill. I agree that the military is killing and destroying. It has to stop. I don’t know how. Corporations are making big bucks so stopping that involves way too much money. As a world force we cannot kill our way to peace.
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Your last line is so true!
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Will be following this story to understand where & how a 13-y.o. Indiana kid got that gun – & how that intersects w/Indiana gun laws. I’m remembering that Adam Lanza’s Mom had multiple guns at home, & raised him to shoot, & all he had to do was shoot her & grab unsecured in-house guns to kill 21 5 & 6-y.o. children – in a blue state that doesn’t even have concealed carry & ‘stand-your-ground’ laws.
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