Teacher Reveals What Happened During Waukesha South Shooting

WAUKESHA, WI — On Monday, Waukesha police shot a 17-year-old student who brought a gun to class at Waukesha South High School.

The school was put on lockdown, and hundreds of parents flooded the school grounds to reunite with their children — many who had been traumatized by Monday morning's events.

A.J. Raebel is a math teacher and the head football coach at Waukesha South High School. He was leading class Monday when an announcement crackled over the loudspeaker: There was an active shooter in the building.

At first, Raebel thought what many people would think: Is this for real?

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He stuck his head out of his classroom, only to find two of the school's school resource officers — armed officers deployed in schools and responsible for safety and crime prevention — on alert, he wrote. This situation was not a drill.

Raebel chronicled his experience in Waukesha South on Monday morning. It's a moment-by-moment breakdown of events as they happened.

Seven minutes after the lockdown was announced, Raebel said, he heard three or four gunshots. His initial reaction was fear. He saw several students start to cry. They "bunked up," assuming positions that could potentially shelter them from a gunman.

Raebel left his protective position twice — first to see if he could help kids exit the school through open windows from a safe spot. There weren't any. Then he left his position again — not to hide but to potentially attack the gunman.

Raebel said it took 11 minutes for word to reach him that police shot the student and the threat had ended.

"Until this text came through, that was the longest 11 minutes of my life," he wrote.

In the end, he and the students were physically safe. But in a moment of personal vulnerability, Raebel wrote about the psychological effect of having to go through the trauma of a school shooting.

In a Facebook post, Raebel wrote, "On my way out, a door slams and I jump. I have been having chest pains, shortness of breath, trouble breathing. I pick up dinner at the grocery store. I am appalled at the callousness of the clerks, 'At least you got to go home early.' On my way to the car, another loud bang, and another jump."

Raebel wrote that a student helped to isolate the 17-year-old student who brought the gun to school. "To the kid that saw something, and said something: You saved many lives today."