On Monday morning, actress Melissa Joan Hart was on her way to a conference at another school when she came upon the scene of a fatal shooting at Covenant School in Nashville. In an emotional Instagram video, Hart revealed that she helped young children and teachers escape the shooting.
Hart said that she and her husband were driving when they saw children running away from the school. She immediately pulled over and started helping them get to safety. She said that many of the kids were crying and scared, so she tried to remain calm while helping them find shelter.
“Hey guys, 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,” Hart began. “We moved here from Connecticut where we were in 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,” she continued. “But we did — 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 all these tiny little kids cross the road and get their teachers over there,” she said. “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.”
“We pray every night with the kids and at every meal,” Hart once said of her family, saying of her son, “We let Mason lead us in prayer, which is really very cute. He always thanks God for dinosaurs. We go to church every Sunday, and Mason goes to Sunday school while my husband and I are in the actual service. He is learning and coloring. He thinks he is having fun, but at the same time he is learning about Jesus, religion, and prayer.”
“Braydon, too, will start that in a couple of months,” she continued. “Mason also goes to a Christian pre-school, which I think is wonderful and helpful. They say a prayer before snack every day and do chapel once a week. I think it is nice. It puts him around a group that has the same beliefs as his family. It makes us nice for us to make new friends within that community.”
Hart’s heroic actions are being praised by many people across the country who are shocked by this tragedy. “I’m so proud of Melissa Joan Hart for putting her own safety aside in order to help these kids,” one person wrote on Twitter. “Her bravery is an inspiration.”
In addition to helping those affected by school shootings, Hart has also been involved with various charities throughout her career. She has worked with organizations such as Feeding America, St Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and Make-A-Wish Foundation in order to help those in need.
Melissa Joan Hart is an example of how one person can make a difference during times of crisis and tragedy.
