OREGON SHOOTING
Oregon shooting: Teacher says she played dead to survive
Becky Drury says she was shot while trying to close her classroom door during the 15 October attack in Bend, Oregon. Her statement challenges accounts suggesting she had been able to shield a pupil.
BharatVox ·
A teacher wounded in the 15 October shooting at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, says she survived by remaining on the floor and pretending to be dead after the attacker shot her as she tried to close her classroom door.
BBC News reported that Becky Drury, 54, described the attack in a statement shared with US media—her first public account since the shooting. Three children and a teacher were killed before a parent fatally shot the 16-year-old attacker, whom officials identified as former pupil Griffin J John II.
Injuries left her unable to protect pupils
Drury said she had gone to check what was happening outside her special-education classroom. On seeing the gunman, she tried to shut the door, but he shot her and she fell.
She described severe injuries to both arms, including a gunshot wound that nearly severed her left hand. Unable to rise or intervene, she lay still in the hope that the attacker would not fire at her again. Her injuries were reported as serious but not life-threatening.
Her statement addressed conflicting accounts of her actions, including reports that a teacher had covered a child with her body. Drury said she had been shot before she had an opportunity to act and could not help the children in the room. Her account concerns her own actions; it does not establish what every other teacher did.
Four victims killed; motive not disclosed
Those killed included five-year-old Rhoam Summer, two other children aged eight and 11, and teacher Megan Lambert, 25.
Police said a separate, unnamed teacher tried to disarm the attacker by throwing her mobile phone. She was not injured. A father of two pupils, who had followed the suspect into the school, subsequently shot and killed him.
Officials described the suspect as a former pupil with special educational needs. Police had not disclosed a motive, and that educational history does not establish one.
Drury expressed grief for everyone affected, describing the classroom attack as beyond comprehension.
Fact-check this story · Source: BBC News: Teacher in Oregon shooting said she pretended to be dead to survive. This AI-assisted account is based on the linked source, not independent on-the-ground reporting by BharatVox. Any opinion is separately labelled.
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