ATLANTA– Grief, pain, hope and faith permeated church services Sunday as an Atlanta-area community tried to cope with the nation’s latest deadly disease. school shooting contained prayers, hymns, and a personal account of the tragedy by a teacher who was there.
Brooke Lewis-Slamkova, who teaches nutrition at Apalachee High School, told the congregation at Bethlehem First United Methodist Church in Barrow County, Georgia, that she was mid-class on Wednesday when the lockdown alarm went off.
She remembered placing herself between the children and the classroom door, hoping that soon she would hear the voices of school administrators telling her it was all a drill. But she heard no familiar voices in the hallway, and the realization that it was not a drill quickly dawned on her.
“As soon as they opened the door in all their law enforcement uniforms, I have never been so happy to see a police officer in my entire life,” she said during the livestreamed service. “They opened the door and said, ‘Get out.’”
Lewis-Slamkova said she was encouraged by what she saw after she and her students safely left: students comforting each other and sharing their feelings. mobile phones with those who needed to contact their loved ones, parents arriving on the scene and offering assistance and transportation to students whose parents had not arrived, “parents who love their children as we should love our children, every day.”
“At times like these, words seem inadequate,” Pastor Frank Bernat said earlier in a service at the church. “I’ve been searching for words all week, but they just aren’t there. And I know many of you are in the same boat — overcome with emotion.”
Not far away, at the eponymous Bethlehem Church, Reverend Jason Britt acknowledged the shock of Wednesday’s school violence.
“Many of us in this room are deeply connected to that high school,” Britt said. “Our students go there. Our children go there, our children went there, we teach there.”
Obviously, no one is immune to tragedy, Britt said. “But when it happens so openly in our own community, it hits home.”
Foal Gray, 14, has been accused with murder about killing two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School in Barrow County, outside Atlanta, on Wednesday. His fatherColin Gray, is charged with second-degree murder for giving his son a semi-automatic AR-15 style rifle. Both remain in custody.
Sunday’s church service took place not only against the backdrop of the shooting itself, but also as information about the teenage suspect, his family and the developments leading up to the shooting became public.
The teenage suspect’s mother had called the school before the killings and alerted staff to an “extreme emergency” involving her son, a family member said.
Annie Brown told The Washington Post that her sister, Colt Gray’s mother, texted her saying she had spoken to a school counselor and urged them to find her son “immediately” to check on him.
Brown provided screenshots of the text exchange to the newspaper. The newspaper also reported that a call log from the family’s shared phone plan showed a call to the school about 30 minutes before the alleged shots were fired.
Brown confirmed the reports in text messages to The Associated Press on Saturday, but declined to comment further.
At the Methodist church on Sunday, Bernat said members and church officials tried to maintain a sense of normalcy while acknowledging the tragedy and offering comfort. He invited congregants to a planned Sunday evening service. “We’re going to be together, cry together and lean on each other,” he said.
Lewis-Slamkova, a lifelong member of the church who said she has taught some of its members, expressed her continued faith. “God is still in control,” she said. “And love will prevail.”
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Associated Press journalists Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon, and Trenton Daniel in New York contributed to this report.