The educator who intervened in a Bend elementary school shooting — throwing her cellphone at the shooter and tackling him — earlier this month has been identified as learning specialist Cassidy Schutz.
In her first public statement since the incident, released by the Bend-LaPine School District on Friday, Schutz said “there are no words to describe the depth of sadness I am feeling” and said she is focused on healing alongside her family and school community.
“It all happened so fast, and I wish with everything in me that we had more time,” Schutz said in the statement. “The pain of this loss I will carry with me forever.”
On Oct. 15, a teenage shooter entered Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend and opened fire in a special-needs classroom, killing three students and one teacher and injuring two others. A school parent followed the teenager into the school carrying his own gun and fatally shot the teen.
Following the shooting, police said an educator threw their cellphone at the shooter and tackled him in an attempt to grab his gun. At the time, Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz said the educator was uninjured but “almost certainly helped prevent more bloodshed.”
That educator, a certified learning specialist, has now been identified as Schutz.
In her statement, Schutz said she would not make any additional public statements and asked for time, space and privacy.
“This is a horrific and heartbreaking tragedy, and it is our real lives,” she said. “My thoughts are with those who were lost, their families, those who were hurt, and those who were there that day. My heart is with you.”
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