Photo: TikTok / YouTube
This is chilling to watch.
By Amanda Hartmann — Written on Dec 02, 2021
The nightmare began at Oxford High School on Tuesday afternoon when shots were heard and an announcement came on, ordering a schoolwide lockdown.
The horrific shooting took the lives of at least four students and seriously injured six other students and one teacher before the police apprehended a suspect and took away his gun.
The internet was shocked when a chilling moment was uploaded by a student of his class’s escape from someone who might have been the shooter while he was at large.
Video from inside an Oxford High School classroom show students running for the lives.
In a sign language class, freshman Mark Kluska began recording the event while the students huddled inside their classroom under lockdown.
Uploaded to the student’s TikTok account after the incident, the video shows Kluska’s class face a scare during the lockdown, when an unknown voice came to knock on their classroom door.
The video shows students looking nervous as a voice was heard at the door saying, “Sheriff’s office. It’s safe to come out.”
The teacher spoke to the person behind the door, keeping with many schools’ lockdown policies by refusing to open the door, regardless of what is claimed on the other side.
“We’re not willing to take that risk right now,” the teacher said, making no move to open the door for the supposed officer.
After the teacher repeated this statement, the male voice seemed to grow agitated, calling out, “OK, well come to the door and look at my badge, bro.”
Immediately, the teacher and class were alerted to the standoffish and casual tone of the voice, saying that it was a “red flag,” that he referred to the teacher as “bro.”
The Oxford HS students were able to make a quick escape.
Following the unsettling reply from the unknown male voice behind the door, the students became incredibly worried that their classroom would soon no longer be safe.
But their teacher, again, acted quickly to keep the children as far away from this person who they now suspected to be the shooter.
The teacher, not visible at this moment in the video, supposedly waved them toward the first-floor windows, to which they all suddenly beelined to escape their classroom.
The students’ fear became palpable as they made their escape, the teacher holding the curtains back to allow the students out first.
The class ran across a courtyard into another section of the school, where uniformed officers waited for them.
The officers tried to quickly calm the students, while also having them drop their backpacks as a precaution.
Police say the voice was not that of the shooter.
Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said the video does not show the alleged shooter impersonating one of his deputies.
After reviewing cameras inside the school, police determined that the suspect did not knock on any doors, Bouchard said during a Wednesday press conference.
“We’ve now been able to determine that was not the suspect,” Bouchard said. “More than likely it was one of our plainclothes detectives. He may have been talking ‘bro’ in a conversational manner to try to bring them down from the crisis.”
Still, many are applauding the teacher’s quick thinking and extra precautions.
On the comments of the student’s TikTok video, many praised the teacher for strictly following lockdown rules, one commentor stating, “We are always told never open the door. Someone has to come unlock it. So glad ya’ll didn’t.”
Many others were grateful that the voice behind the door “slipped” up and called the teacher “bro,” hinting that he might not have been a real police officer.
Another commentor asserted that the voice at the door “was a clear red flag, good thing you all were smart enough.”
However, many find it difficult to celebrate potential victories after such a tragic event.
While many are praising the teacher and students for their awareness, the strongest sentiment is still that this whole thing should have never happened in the first place, especially as there have allegedly been signs hinting that this could happen, which the school had supposedly deemed as “not a threat.”
Because, despite this class’s escape to safety, they have still experienced serious trauma from this scare, and other students were not so lucky as to escape. At least four students were killed by the awful attack, several others being critically injured.
In the end, hearts must go out to all the students and to their families, especially those who have lost a beloved child.
And many hope to see a day where students and teachers are never forced to make life or death decisions due to a school shooting again.
Amanda Hartmann is a writer and editorial intern at YourTango who writes on news and entertainment.