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A teacher who was seriously injured during the Apalachee High School shooting in Georgia has spoken out about the deadly attack, thanking the 14-year-old students who came to his aid after bullets ripped through his body.
Math teacher David Phenix was shot twice while protecting his students — once in the hip and once through his foot — in the attack, which left four dead and nine others injured on September 4.
After nearly two weeks in the hospital, and two successful surgeries, Phenix is now back home recovering and has paid tribute to two students who put pressure on his wound — and the co-teacher who calmed his class.
“I would like to thank those who, in the course of all the chaos, found it in themselves to take my life in their hands,” he wrote in a Facebook post. “To Valerie Lancaster, the Math teacher that I co-teach with who manager to put pressure on my wound while, at the same time, managing and calming a class of 23 scared, terrified and panicked teenagers. To 2 fourteen-year-old students who filled in for Ms. Lancaster and pressurized my wound while Valerie called for help. You both are exceptional young people and have my everlasting gratitude.”
He shed new light on the terrifying events that afternoon, when suspected gunman Colt Gray, 14, allegedly opened fire at his own high school with a rifle police say his father bought him as a gift.
“The images, sights, sounds, and actions are immense and will be forever etched in my memory and will take weeks, months, and even years to process,” Phenix said.
“Right now, my emotions are so much easier to describe than the justifications and reasons behind them.”
He added: “I was incredibly blessed that the bullet that went into my side and the one that entered my foot managed to miss every vital ligament, tendon, bone, and organ.
“Had things been a quarter inch to the left or right, things could have been vastly different.
“Mentally, will be just as challenging. I am sure trying to truly wrap my brain around what happened on September 4th will require just as much rehab.”
Despite his own recovery, and a return to “some degree of normalcy,” Phenix said the “pangs of sorrow” for the four victims — students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14, and Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Christina Irimie, 53 — remain at the “forefront of everything.”
“From anger to mourning to sadness to gratefulness to even feeling blessed to be able to sit here and write this post, processing the reasons behind September 4th will be a long road that will most likely, never be truly understood,” he said.
“The pangs of sorrow and grief for the families of Ricky, Christina, Mason, and Christian stay at the forefront of everything.”
“I am sure they are hurting and heartbroken at a level few of us understand,” he added.
Gray, who surrendered to authorities at the scene, has been charged with four counts of felony murder, and will be tried as an adult. Colt’s father, Colin, has also been charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder, and eight counts of cruelty to children.
