Melissa Joan Hart spoke about helping kindergartners escape the shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville earlier this week in a tearful video shared on Instagram.
Hart and her husband happened to be near the scene on Monday, while headed to the nearby school that their kids attend for a day of conferences (Hart noted her kids weren’t in school that day). The couple arrived amidst the aftermath of the shooting and soon found themselves assisting a group of kids fleeing the campus.
“We helped a class of kindergartners across a busy highway,” Hart said. “They were climbing out of the woods. They were trying to escape the shooter situation at their school. So we helped these tiny little kids cross the road and get their teachers over there. And we helped a mom reunite with her children.”
At the start of the video, Hart noted that this isn’t the first time her family has been eerily close to a school shooting: “We moved [to Nashville] from Connecticut where we were in a school a little ways down from Sandy Hook, so this is our second experience with a school shooting, with our kids being in close proximity. Luckily, we are all ok.”
At the end of the message, Hart said, “I just don’t know what to say anymore. It is just, enough is enough. Just pray. Pray for the families.” In the caption, she added, “Prayers today, Action tomorrow. This was too raw to post yesterday but wanted you to hear this story.”
Three children and three adult staff members were killed at the Christain school on Monday, while police also fatally shot the shooter, Audrey Hale. Along with Hart, other notable Nashville residents have spoken up in the wake of the shooting, including Roseanne Cash, Margo Price, Jason Isbell, and Sheryl Crowe. Somewhat similar to Hart, Kings of Leon drummer Nathan Followill noted that he sends his kids to a school near Covenant as well.
“A school shooting just happened near my sons school,” he wrote on Twitter. “Multiple children dead but let’s make sure that the gunman had his 2nd Amendment rights. Fuck you Bill Lee and fuck the NRA.”