Child heroes in shooting

Photo: The Canadian Press

Randy Morehouse, maintenance and operations supervisor at Rancho Tehama Elementary School.

Teacher Jennifer Bauman threw herself against a classroom door that wouldn't lock right, terrified that the gunman shooting outside her small Northern California elementary school would barrel in and find the children huddled under desks.

Shooter Kevin Neal, 44, bypassed their door, taking out a window before he went on to attack a kindergarten class in another portable building.

Despite her terror, Bauman, who teaches first and second grade, couldn't stop praising the pupils who stayed calm. She said fourth- and fifth-graders quieted the younger ones, and let her know which ones had been slightly wounded by flying glass.

"I braced myself against the door. I didn't even think twice. I don't feel like a hero. I did what I was supposed to do," she said. "The kids are the heroes."

Authorities credited the quick action of school personnel, who jumped into lockdown mode as soon as they heard gunshots Tuesday morning, for saving dozens of students at Rancho Tehama Elementary School. The school has about 100 students and is about 130 miles (209 kilometres) north of Sacramento.

"I really, truly believe we would have had a horrific bloodbath at that school if that school hadn't taken the action that it did," Assistant Tehama County Sheriff Phil Johnston said.

School secretary Sara Lobdell rushed out to shoo children inside while John Hayburn, a custodian, swooped into the play yard, yelling at stragglers: "get into the classrooms."

Randy Morehouse, the district's maintenance and operations head, said Neal "tried and tried and tried and tried to get into the kindergarten door," but it was locked.

The gunman then went to the back side of the cafeteria and reloaded, Morehouse said. He came onto the playground and shot at a passing car before running back to his vehicle and driving off.