As many are well aware, this week has been marred by the latest mass shooting to occur at a U.S. school, the 19th so far in 2023 where at least one person was wounded. The tragic incident, which occurred at The Covenant School in Nashville, left three 9-year-old students dead, along with a custodian, substitute teacher, and the head of the institution. Understandably, the topic has been at the forefront of news coverage, with many taking to social media to share all manner of reactions, but Sabrina the Teenage Witch vet Melissa Joan Hart had a different experience than most others, as she shared a starring story about her and her husband helping a group of kids running away from the shooting.
Melissa Joan Hart was justifiably teary-eyed when taking to Instagram to share her story, reflecting on the fact that this isn’t even the first school shooting that she and her family have been adjacent to. Here’s how she put it:
For those of you that know I live in Nashville, and what's been going on here today: my kids go to school right next to a school where there was a shooting today. And we moved here from Connecticut, where we were in a school a little ways down from Sandy Hook, so this is our second experience with a school shooting with our kids being in close proximity. Luckily, we are all okay. But my husband and I were on our way to school for conferences - luckily our kids weren't in today - and we helped a class of kindergarteners across a busy highway. They were climbing out of the woods; they were trying to escape the shooter situation at their school. So we helped all these tiny little kids cross the road and get their teachers over there, and we helped a mom reunite with her children. And I don't know what to say anymore. It is just...enough is enough, and just pray. Pray for the families.
Thankfully, the former Netflix star and her husband were out of harm’s way during the time of the shooting, as well as their children, and they were able to hopefully deliver not only assistance, but a bit of comfort and distraction from the horrifying chaos while helping the group of kindergarteners. It’s often in times of unexpected tragedies when people band together instinctively, and Hart and husband Mark Wilkerson’s parental instincts likely took over in a big way, with thoughts about their own sons’ safety no doubt taking over. It’s impossible to know what one will do in an unpredictable moment like that, but we should all hope to react in such a selfless way.
Melissa Joan Hart has spoken in the past about her sons having attended school very near to Sandy Hook Elementary, where the second deadliest school shooting in U.S. history took place in 2012. The fam moved to their vacation home in Lake Tahoe in 2019, and then transitioned to Nashville in 2020.
Below is the previous post that Hart shared about the tragedy, where she first noted some of the details mentioned in the video above.
It was just over a week prior to the deadly shooting when Melissa Joan Hart was sharing the stage with Sabrina co-stars Caroline Rhea, Beth Broderick and Nate Richert at ‘90s Con in Hartford, CT. The actress, who'd recently recalled almost being fired from the TGIF sitcom, talked about not having ever watched the bewitching comedy with any regularity, and about having worked with Ryan Reynolds (both professionally and personally) during those early years. The cast as a whole reflected on both joyous and stressful times working on the show for seven seasons.
Sadly, our world is not one where supernatural magic is a fingertip away, and tragedies such as this happen far too often. CinemaBlend sends our thoughts and condolences to everyone who's been affected by the Covenant School shooting.
