For Josey students, moments of terror follow shooting

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - After a gunshot rang out at Josey High School, students said they didn’t finally feel safe until they’d evacuated the building.

A shooting sent a student to a hospital with a hand wound after an altercation escalated Wednesday morning. The shooter, also a student, turned himself in Thursday.

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After deputies were notified at 11:15 a.m., they converged on the school, which was already on lockdown. The officers checked every classroom and escorted the teenagers to the football field.

Tenth-grader Samaria Stallings said the deputies themselves were scary.

“They immediately came in with big guns and of course you’re terrified, ‘Put your hands up,’ like we did something,” she said. “It was just crazy.”

She was glad once she was on the football field.

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“I want to say thanks to my teacher because she made sure she was calm and collected and told us to be quiet,” the teenager said. “She was here for us.”

For now, Stallings needs to rest and recover from what happened.

‘I was distraught,’ aunt says

Jasmine Burley was among the adults showing up at the school to pick up students.

She said it took an hour and a half to find her niece and nephew.

There was confusion with the evacuation, she said, after being told students were at the football stadium and then the gym.

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After the stress of waiting so long, she was finally reunited with them.

“I was relieved because the whole time, I’m crying,” she said. “I was distraught.”

But after seeing the teenagers, she was relieved.

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Classes won’t be held Friday at Josey High School, Murphey Middle School or Marion E. Barnes Career Center. When classes resume Monday, counselors will be available to students.

“We laughed, we smiled. Check them for any injuries, scrapes, because my niece did fall. She hurt herself, as well, trying to get out,” she said. “We just left and went and got something to eat, snacks from the store.”

She said they probably won’t be going to school for the next two days or so until they feel more comfortable.

‘Not chaotic at all,’ sheriff says

Despite the confusion, Sheriff Richard Roundtree was full of praise for educators’ quick reaction.

“When we got there, the scene was not chaotic at all,” Roundtree said. “Everyone had followed protocol.”

He urged parents and guardians to be familiar ahead of time with the so-called reunification procedures at their kids’ school.

He said when parents show up at the front door trying to get into a locked-down school, “all it does is hinder officers in their efforts to secure the school.”