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The boys don't have cell phones. One of the released adults got to a phone and called 911. It was all in the presser..

You missed my point with technicalities. Cell phone, whatever, one adult should have stayed with the children. Guess I view it as a captain going down with the ship.

If one of those girls had been my little 6 year old being tied up and I walked out on her in the scariest time of her life that would be a living hell for the rest of my life. Better to die with the child than have that on one's mind forever. No one seems to answer the actually question, how do you walk out on a child and leave them with a psycho?

The women that were let go all had babies or were pregnant

Would you have both of your children killed?

Sophie's choice,

I know what your saying, but I think your putting blame on the women who were forced to leave the school building by a gun, therefore leaving the side of those children. We weren't there, but the only one to blame here is the sick man who killed these little girls. No one knows what they would really do in a scary situation like that. Yes, we'd like to think we'd know, but I bet dollars to donuts when fear is set in nothing you do makes sense at that point and you don't do a lot of thinking. I'm sure these women are going to wish they had stayed and fought, but they didn't know what was going to happen and they probably were delirious and didn't even think about anything! I don't blame them, I blame the perp and he is the one we should be slamming here, not the victims.

No one seems to answer the actually question, how do you walk out on a child and leave them with a psycho?

Easy. Psycho has gun, tells you to leave or he'll kill you. You leave, thinking there'll be time to get help. You also leave because you believe in the basic goodness of (some) man, and maybe he told you he wouldn't hurt the kids, BUT HE DID SAY HE'D KILL YOU IF YOU DIDN'T LEAVE. You don't want to subject the kids to the vision of you -uh- being killed in front of them. So you leave. You know, either way, no matter what you do, you'll have to live with your decision for the rest of your life, no matter how short. But mostly you leave because you think you can get help.

signed,

a mother AND a teacher (who, btw, nowadays, would have been armed)

I know you've been asked to leave....tensions are high....

..but even if I get flamed, I wondered the same thing....

..We hear pregnant moms were allowed to leave...moms with babies were allowed to leave...

...We don't know what truly happened....and we only have hingsight and even the memory of the mad gunman in Scotland who shot up a kindergarten class....

..and were left with the memory of the kindergarten teacher dying trying to protect the little ones in her care by covering some with her own body.

I haven't read all the posts, but I think Txbubba is haunted by the thought of little ones watching moms and teacher leave before they are gunned down......

..it's horrifying.

We don't even know if one of the moms had to leave her own daughter.

Speculation is only making it worse for us here.

If one of those girls had been my little 6 year old being tied up and I walked out on her in the scariest time of her life that would be a living hell for the rest of my life.

Do you honestly think that these teachers are NOT going to go through hell for the rest of their lives thinking "What if I had stayed?"

Most of the adults that left had their own babies (infants) in their arms. The teachers aide was obviously pregnant, which makes it physically difficult to jump someone, center of gravity is different than normal, weight shifting is different than normal. For both these groups (mothers with infants in arms and pregnant women) there is a psychological/genetic imperative that kicks in, in times of stress/danger that says "Save my child -- the most important thing in the world is to save my child".

The teacher, who normally within the Amish community, will be an unmarried female, is young. She, yes, could have stayed. However she had very little time to make the decision and, most probably, felt that obeying the man with the gun was the safest way to safeguard the children. As soon as she was out she did what we are all taught to do -- go for the police, so she called 911. I hope that the community will watch this woman closely in the coming weeks. She may feel that this was in some way her fault, for not staying, and attempt suicide

You say you would never leave your 6 yr old, and as a mother that is a very normal reaction for your child. However, if you thought (and you probably have less than 20 seconds to make this choice) that obeying a dangerous man with a gun orders to leave might SAVE someone else' child you very well might leave.

TXBubba, I may be one of the few who agree with you here today. But it is very very hard to "lay down one's life for a friend", even if the Bible tells us "greater love hath no one". Realistically, in the moment, self-preservation is a mighty strong force.

Who knows, really, what you or I would do when confronted with such an awful decision.