Science teacher Jason Seaman thought nothing of the request by one of his junior high students to leave his classroom briefly last Friday morning. Seaman, who teaches science at Noblesville West Middle School near Indianapolis, also serves as a football coach at the 1,300-student school.
When the student (whose name hasn’t yet been released) returned with two handguns and starting shooting at his students, Seaman immediately ran toward him, knocking the guns away and tackling him. The shooter had time to wound seriously one of his students, Ella Whistler, but was prevented from inflicting any further casualties by the quick thinking and action of Seaman.
For his trouble, Seaman suffered three gunshot wounds: in the stomach, hip, and arm. Both Seaman and Whistler were taken to local hospitals, where emergency surgery was performed on both of them.
It wasn’t until Monday morning that Seaman had recovered enough to be able to issue a statement, in which he said:
I want to let everyone know that I was injured but am doing great. To all the students, you are all wonderful and I thank you for your support. You are the reason I teach.
[I am] a person who is not looking for attention. I want to make it clear that my actions on that day, in my mind, were the only acceptable actions I could have done given the circumstances.
I deeply care for my students and their well-being. That is why I did what I did that day.
He then turned his attention to Ella Whistler, who remains in critical condition:
I can’t say enough how proud of Ella I am and how we all should be. Her courage and strength at such a young age is nothing short of remarkable, and we should all continue to keep her in our minds as she continues to recover.
Enter Jackson Ramey, a student at nearby Noblesville High School. He started a GoFundMe page for Seaman with a goal of raising $90,000 to help Seaman with his medical expenses. Wrote Ramey:
I was at the High School when I heard about the shooting at Noblesville West Middle School, the school Jason Seaman was teaching at. Throughout the day of May 25, 2018 at all Noblesville Schools and all over the community we were shocked to hear the news of what happened at Noblesville West Middle School. Jason Seaman was working at Noblesville West Middle School when a student shooter was present in the building. It was his class that was attacked by the shooter.
He was the first to intervene with the shooter. His actions saved the lives of many kids that were present in his class today. He put his life on the line for their protection. The funds will be going to the family for any personal expenses that have incurred due to the event.
Please donate and share this everywhere possible, anything helps! All proceeds will go to the family.
At this writing more than 1,800 individuals have given $88,309 to help Seaman with those expenses.
But America’s goodness doesn’t end there. A friend of Ella Whistler’s father, who wished to remain anonymous, started another GoFundMe campaign for Ella, with a goal of raising $60,000 for her medical expenses. As of this writing nearly 1,000 people have donated $44,827 to help her and her family deal with those costs.
And that’s in three days.
Seaman was overcome with the response to Ramey’s efforts:
I can’t really fathom how someone I have not personally met would do such an act of kindness and how the Noblesville community has been so generous in their response to it.
By contrast, Indiana Senate Democrats issued a statement in which they expressed their condolences and then called for punishment for innocent gun owners who had nothing to do with Friday’s shooting, and for more gun laws.
The disconnect between genuine heartfelt goodness and giving by citizens following Friday’s shooting and the Democrats’ calling for more restrictions on law-abiding Indiana gun owners couldn’t be more stark. Instead of applauding the remarkable generosity expressed through support of those GoFundMe campaigns, the Democrats decided this was a good time to press forward on their agenda to restrict further freedoms of Indiana gun owners.
An Ivy League graduate and former investment advisor, Bob is a regular contributor to The New American magazine and blogs frequently at LightFromTheRight.com, primarily on economics and politics. He can be reached at [email protected].
