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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Entertainment
Lisa McLoughlin

Melissa Joan Hart describes helping children ‘escape’ Nashville school shooting

Sabrina the Teenage Witch star Melissa Joan Hart has revealed she helped guide children to safety following the school shooting in Nashville, Tennessee.

Audrey Hale shot dead three nine-year-olds and three adults at the Covenant School on Monday morning. The former student, 28, was killed by police following the massacre.

Hart, who lives in Nashville, spoke about the harrowing ordeal in a newly uploaded Instagram post and said her children attend a school “right next to” where the massacre took place.

The 47-year-old said: “We moved here from Connecticut where we were in school a little way 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.”

Hart went on to explain that she and her husband Mark Wilkerson, who she shares sons Mason, 17, Braden, 15, and Tucker, 10 with, helped little children “trying to escape” the violent attack.

Getting overcome with emotion, Hart continued: “My husband and I were on our way to school for conferences. Luckily our kids weren’t in today.

“We helped a class of kindergartners across a busy highway. They were climbing out of the woods; they were trying to escape a shooter situation at their school.

“So, we helped these tiny little kids cross the road and get their teachers over there.

“We helped a mom reunite with her children and I just … I don’t know what to say. Enough is enough. Just pray, pray for the families.”

Alongside her heartfelt sentiments in the post, Hart captioned the video, “Prayers today, Action tomorrow. This was too raw to post yesterday but wanted you to hear this story.”

The victims of Monday’s shooting included three nine-year-old children, Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney.

As well as substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, 61; Katherine Koonce, 60, who is believed to have been the school’s head; and Mike Hill, 61, reportedly a custodian.

The incident is the latest in a series of mass shootings in the US. Just last week alone, school shootings happened in Denver and the Dallas-area within two days of each other.

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