Jean Kuczka stepped between gunman Orlando Harris when he opened fireplace in her classroom.
The St. Louis highschool trainer killed by teenage gunman Orlando Harris on Monday died after heroically defending her college students, her household stated.
Jean Kuczka, who taught Well being and Bodily Schooling, stepped between Harris and her college students when he burst into her Central Visible and Performing Arts Excessive Faculty classroom and opened fireplace with an AR-15-style rifle, stated her daughter, Abby Kuczka, citing a police account of the horror.
“My mother liked children,” Abbey Kuczka advised the St. Louis Put up-Dispatch. “She liked her college students. I do know her college students checked out her like she was their mother.”
Harris, 19, additionally fatally shot tenth-grader Alexandria Bell earlier than he was killed in a shootout with police. Survivors of the assault declare Harris tried to focus on extra college students, however his gun jammed.
The teenage gunmen left behind a be aware during which he referred to as his lonely life a “good storm for a mass shooter.”
Kuczka, 61, had talked about safety considerations on the college within the months main as much as the shooter after a pupil at close by college introduced a gun into the constructing, her daughter stated.
“She talked about that, however aside from that, she didn’t actually assume something” about security considerations, her daughter stated. “I imply, I feel folks assume it'll by no means occur to them.”
Glenn Barnes, certainly one of Kuczka’s CVPA coworkers, referred to as her homicide “an enormous loss.”
Harris entered the varsity with an AR-15-style rifle and greater than 600 rounds of ammunition.
Harris killed Kuczka and tenth-grader Alexandria Bell.
“Jean Kuczka was an incredible educator. She liked her college students and helped them make a distinction within the college and group,” Barnes wrote on Twitter.
Kuczka not too long ago started teaching cross nation at Collegiate, an SLPS magnet college that shares a campus with CVPA.
“This was her first yr of empty-nesting, and he or she was on the lookout for one thing additional to do,” Abbey stated. “She was undoubtedly wanting ahead to retirement although. She was shut.”
In line with her biography on the varsity’s web site, Kuczka had taught at CVPA since 2008. She was inducted into her alma mater Missouri State’s Sports activities Corridor of Fame as a member of the 1979 Nationwide Championship workforce.
An avid biker, she participated in JDRF’s Trip to Remedy every year to boost cash to discover a remedy for juvenile diabetes, a illness her 29-year-old son suffers from.
Kuczka leaves behind a husband, 5 youngsters and 7 grandchildren.
“I can not think about myself in another profession however instructing,” Kuczka wrote. “I imagine that each youngster is a novel human being and deserves an opportunity to be taught.”
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