Scott Beigel Z”L, 35, is believed to have been struck by a bullet after letting students take shelter in his classroom and trying to close the door as suspected shooter Nikolas Cruz walked past. Student Kelsey Friend told CNN ‘I am alive today because of him. Speaking later to CNN, she added: ‘He unlocked the door and let us in. ‘I thought he was behind me but he wasn’t.
‘When he opened the door, he had to relock it so that we could stay safe but he didn’t get the chance.’
Kelsey Friend said her social science teacher, Scott Beigel, was killed by the shooter while trying to lock the classroom door.
“Unfortunately, I had to watch him lying there lifeless in the doorway,” she told Local 10 News reporter Erica Rakow.
Friend said Beigel was trying to save her and the other students in the classroom when he was gunned down.
“We were all in the classroom with the door wide open,” Friend said.
Friend said she and her friends hid behind Beigel’s desk.
She said the gunman, later identified by authorities as former student Nikolas Cruz, could have come in and shot everyone in the room.
“Thank God that he didn’t because if he did, I probably wouldn’t be with my mom … or see my sister again,” Friend said.
“I am alive today because of him,” Friend said when given the opportunity to address Beigel’s family. “Thank you for bringing and having this amazing person in life and giving him the power to be stronger than I could have ever been.”
Beigel’s impact will never be forgotten by those he saved.
“He will be missed by me and multiple friends, his name with me will live on,” Friend said.
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9 Responses
A genuine hero…Yehi Zichro Baruch…
very heart wrenching for everyone…
Bde
Umbeliavable!
baruch dayan haemet
BDE….what a TRUE hero and role model for our youth, whatever their level of hashkfah. When we talk about our concern for ALL lives and how one or two posters here belittled themselves by arguing a “yidden first” mentality, the niftar did not bother checking whether boys and girls whose lives he saved were yidden or goyim. Like anyone else, he realized ALL were the creation of hashem an all those precious lives mattered equally. His family and friends should gain nechama from the outpourig of grief and honor being bestowed upon him.
BDE, hero.
Gadolhadorah +1
Every educator knows that he or she takes the classroom על מנת כן, that he or she will put student safety as the #1 priority, and is willing to put his or her own life on the line to protect the students, but you don’t know if you truly have the strength to do it unless the crisis actually arises. Scott Beigel is an inspiration to us all.
May he continue to be an inspiration to press and future staff and pupils
I watched on CNN the funeral and it was so touching listening to his father how he was maspid in such a beautiful way that made the mourners even laugh at some times. I dont know anyone from the Beigel family but my heart goes out for them and all other families who sufferd in this terrible tragedy. My condolences to all of you and may Scotts soul rest in peace with the other who joined him on this evil trip.