Middle School Science Teacher and Former College Football Player Jason Seaman Was Shot 3 Times After He Rushed A School Shooter and Tackled Him
NOBLESVILLE, Ind. — A teacher who was shot while tackling and disarming a student at an Indiana school said Monday that his swift decisions “were the only acceptable actions” to save his seventh-grade classroom. Jason Seaman spoke publicly for the first time since the Noblesville shooting Friday, thanking the Indiana community for support, praising a 13-year-old who was also shot and urging everyone to think about her as she recovers.
Seaman is credited with stopping a student who entered his Noblesville West Middle School classroom with a gun. The 29-year-old teacher was shot but not seriously injured.
He described himself as “a person who isn’t looking for attention” during a morning press conference.
“I want to make it clear that my actions on that day, in my mind, were the only acceptable actions I could have done given the circumstances,” said Seaman, a former college football player.
I scanned the site and don’t think anyone got this up on the site, but I don’t really care, because if there’s a story that deserves to get reblogged it’s this one.
I know you’re picturing your middle school science teacher right now and I’m positive 99% of us are all thinking of the exact same person. Some geek in an ill fitting striped oxford shirt tucked in to extra baggy khakis with a ratty lab coat hanging over it playing with beakers and shit. Luckily for the students at Noblesville, they just so happen to have the most BADASS science teacher on the planet – one who was willing to be shot three times while protecting his students from an active shooter by throwing his body in front of the bullets.
According to a student in the classroom, Seaman pegged the shooter in the face with a basketball, rushed him, swatted the gun out of his hand, then form tackled him straight through the linoleum.
The attacker, who asked to be dismissed from class before returning with two guns, was arrested “extremely quickly” after the incident around 9am on Friday at Noblesville West middle school, police Chief Kevin Jowitt said. Authorities did not say if the student had been in trouble but it was thought he acted alone.
A seventh-grader, Ethan Stonebraker, said the student was acting suspiciously when he walked into the room while the class was taking a test.
“Our science teacher immediately ran at him, swatted a gun out of his hand and tackled him to the ground,” Stonebraker said. “If it weren’t for him, more of us would have been injured for sure.”
Stonebraker told ABC News Seaman threw a basketball at the shooter and ran toward the bullets as screaming students sought cover. He said he knew the suspected gunman, whom he described as “a nice kid most of the times” and said he often joked with the classmates. [Guardian]
And you know that tackle was in perfect form too, because Seaman is a former college football player.
I’m picturing a Terry Tate Office Linebacker hit in my head and you can’t convince me otherwise.
Seaman’s response – could not care less about the attention. Refused to take questions during his press conference and only said he was happy to do it and that everyone should focus on the recovering victim instead of him.
“I deeply care for my students and their well-being. That is why I did what I did that day,” he said.
Seaman spoke for just a few minutes and declined to answer questions from reporters.
To be clear, if you sacrifice yourself to save the lives of kids, you can brag about it as much as you want in my mind. Strut around with your chest puffed out, sign book deals, star in your own movie, give interviews all over the map. There is no time where being cocky is more acceptable. The fact that Seaman remains the most humble dude on Earth and doesn’t want a single bit of attention is just more testament to his character.