BROOKSVILLE, Fla. — An alert student at a Hernando County high school is being credited with stopping a school shooting just a few weeks ago.
Back in April, a student at Hernando High School sent a text message to a student saying he was going to "shoot up" the school, but thanks to that student coming forward, something that could’ve been horrible was prevented.
Brave Hernando teen stops possible school shooting by alerting authorities
"It scares you to death. You wanna run down and pick them up," said grandparent Linda Barham.
After hearing about the school shooting in Texas, many are reminded of what was possibly prevented at Hernando High School just a month ago.
10 dead, 10 wounded in shooting at Santa Fe High School in Texas, explosives found on campus
Thanks to senior Jamie Pankow seeing threatening text messages and going straight to the school’s S.R.O, the student who made the threats was arrested. He told deputies he had every intention to carry out those threats.
"You can’t sit back and let it happen so you need to step forward and prevent it from happening," said Pankow.
"Thank God that she did. Thank God that the kids are aware and they’re keeping them informed," said Barham.
Pankow says she’s saddened to hear of another shooting and hopes more people will continue to speak up if they see something wrong.
"I don’t understand why people do that to schools, there’s no reason for it. I’m just glad it didn’t happen here but I would be even more glad if it didn’t happen at any other schools," said Pankow.
Pankow says this experience has encouraged her to want to go to the police academy and continue protecting people.
