A reporter covering Monday’s Nashville school shooting revealed on air that she was herself the survivor of a school shooting and recalled her fear hiding from a gunman as a middle-schooler.
The reporter, Joylyn Bukovac of WSMV4 Nashville, said Monday's shooting brought back her eighth-grade memories, running and not knowing where the gunman was.
“It’s just flooding back,” she said. “Flashbacks for me."
Bukovac said that she was in a hallway with her classmates when a gunman opened fire, shooting and killing a student.
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“And just after hearing the gunshots, I just knew to run and hide,” she said.
“I hid underneath the risers in my choir class and those minutes and hours of waiting to be released by police officers, it just felt like a lifetime,” she said. “And I knew my phone was taken, it was turned off so that no one could find me.”
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The shooting Monday at The Covenant School in Nashville left at least six dead, three children and three adults, plus the shooter, whom police said was a woman. She was armed with two assault-style rifles and a handgun, police said.
Bukovac, who did not say where she attended school, said she knew that her family was trying to reach her. She remembered her mother’s overwhelming emotions when they were reunited.
“And so I know exactly what some of these kids are going through today,” she said.
Later she tweeted that she appreciated all of the support that she had received after telling her story.
"I don’t talk about it much, but I think about what happened on February 5, 2010 often," she wrote. "I just want people to know they aren’t alone. I also want to discuss solutions. As a mom, I am worried for the future."
