6th-grade student helped comfort younger students while gunman was on campus
"I was thinking to myself
By Brady Halbleib
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PALERMO, California (KOVR) — It was an emotional day for parents and students in the Butte County community after a gunman opened fire at a school, critically injuring two kindergarten boys.
CBS13 got permission from the parents of one brave sixth-grade girl at Feather River Adventist School who stepped up to help her teacher calm the younger students, all while the shooter was outside the building.
“I was thinking to myself, what if I get shot, what will happen to my family, what will happen to me,” sixth-grade student Jocelyn Orlando said.
That was the terrifying reality for Orlando after gunshots rang out Wednesday afternoon at Feather River Adventist School, sending students and teachers racing to their classrooms to lock their doors.
“I told the kindergarteners to take deep breaths and think of something happy,” Orlando said. “We were going in from lunch recess and basically everyone in my classroom heard shooting and most people were screaming.”
In the face of fear, Orlando and a few of her classmates comforted the little ones, trying to keep them calm all while the shooter was just a few feet away.
“I told the little graders to close their eyes and cover their ears because he was pacing back and forth from the window,” Orlando said. “We all don’t know what’s going to happen next.”
The shooter then turned the gun on himself but not before shooting 5-year-old and 6-year-old boys.
“I don’t really know. It was really really sad,” Orlando said.
Hours later, families were told to gather at the Oroville Church of Nazarene to be reunited with their children.
“I tried to get her as quickly as I could as safely as I could while panicking on the inside,” Orlando’s father, Dale, said.
The parking lot was crowded with parents consoling each other as law enforcement shared updates and answered questions.
Parents like Dale were relieved to be reunited with their daughter but heartbroken after learning of the two children who had been shot.
“We’re not the only city, school, family that this has happened to. And this is not how life should be,” Dale said.
On Thursday, the One In Five Foundation For Kids, formerly The Uvalde Foundation For Kids, announced that they would be awarding Orlando with an award for heroism for her acts during the incident.
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