FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) – A teacher gave heart-wrenching testimony Wednesday, recalling how a student in her Holocaust studies class correctly answered a question seconds before he became one of 17 people murdered by Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz.
Ivy Schamis was leading students through a discussion about the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany when Nick Dworet correctly answered that Adolf Dassler founded the Adidas shoe company, adding that Dassler’s brother founded the rival Puma brand.
It was then they heard the first gunshots in the hallway, and Cruz began firing through the glass on her classroom door.
“It was really seconds later that the barrel of that AR-15 just ambushed our classroom. It came right through that glass panel and was just shooting everywhere. It was very loud. Very frightening. I kept thinking about these kids who should not be experiencing this at all,” she testified, wiping her eyes with tissue.
She said the students scrambled to find safety behind furniture, but didn’t panic and acted with bravery and maturity as they waited to be rescued. Three students were wounded in her class and two were killed: Dworet and Helena Ramsay, both 17.