Teacher hugging a survivor
At least 9 of the 24 casaulties so far are children (CNN).
There were kids running around screaming. The school is just gone, you can't tell what was the front and what was the back. People were screaming for their children.
One witness at Plaza Towers told KOCO television: "We pulled a teacher out and she was on top of three kids. The kids were fine but the teacher was in a bad way and we wheeled her into an ambulance. As far as I know most of the kids got out.
One teacher described lying on top of six children in a bathroom to protect them.
Students and faculty took shelter inside both school buildings when the tornado hit, and Parton said he'd been told that teachers shield children with their bodies in both school buildings when the strong winds ripped the roofs away.
Kindergarten through third grade had been sheltered in the school, according to NBC affiliate KFOR, which also reported that when the tornado struck the school, some of those students were inside the school’s hallways. KFOR later reported that at least 24 of the students had been killed. Several children were pulled alive from the Plaza Towers Elementary rubble, and a sixth-grade teacher–who a KFOR reporter described as “nothing short of a hero”–told the station that she shielded several children with her own body, and all survived.
Matt Sampson @TWCMattSampson 2m
Reports from #KFOR of teachers being badly injured as they used their bodies as shields over the children. #Moore #Tornado #OKwx
Reporter Jesse Wells said the scene is "total devastation." Children were instructed to hug the walls of the interior hallways, he said, and children told him stories of teachers lying on top of students to protect them from debris.
Teachers....