JACKSONVILLE, Fla – The mother of a Saint Clair Evans Academy student said she is still a bit shaken up after gunfire in a neighborhood next to the school sent bullets through a classroom window, but she is thankful about how the school handled the situation.
Things seem back to normal at the elementary school on Moncrief Road two days after shots entered a classroom just after third graders completed the Florida Standard Assessment test.
Destiny Reynolds said she rushed to the school where her daughter is in kindergarten and encountered police everywhere -- a sight no parent wants to see. She said it was by the grace of God no students or teachers were struck by a bullet.
She credits the school with handling the situation efficiently, saying she was able to pull up to the front of the school and instantly hug her daughter and take her home.
"Even when I went to pick her up, I felt emotional because it’s like, all of these kids. Three of them could’ve been dead," Reynolds said. "It was nerve-racking."
Reynolds said sadly she feels it is something that could happen anywhere at any time.
Duval County Public Schools hasn't released attendance data News4Jax requested for the day after the shooting, but parents told News4Jax that attendance was down quite a bit.
Reynolds said she decided to send her daughter back to school Thursday.
"I was (hesitant), but she loves school. She didn’t really know what was going on because they didn’t tell them," Reynolds "I kind of like the fact that they didn’t tell them."
Reynolds agrees with what Principal Lawanda Polydore told the media Wednesday after the incident.
"We have actual heroes. Our teachers, faculty and staff, they did everything they’ve been trained to do and they kept all the children safe," Polydore said.