As the nation continues to reel from yet another school shooting, this time at a private Christian academy in Nashville, Tennessee, Melissa Joan Hart has revealed that she experienced Monday's tragedy firsthand. In an Instagram video posted on Tuesday, the 46-year-old actress said she and her husband, Mark Wilkerson, helped guide a group of terrified kindergartners to safety as the shooting unfolded at The Covenant School.
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An emotional Melissa described how she came to be involved in the situation.
Fighting back tears, the Sabrina the Teenage Witch star shared that her own kids go to school "right next to" where the shooting took place. She and Mark were driving to the school for parent-teacher conferences when they encountered the young children fleeing Covenant.
"We helped a class of kindergartners across a busy highway. They were climbing out of the woods, they were trying to escape a shooter situation at their school. So we helped these tiny little kids cross the road and get their teachers over there. We helped a mom reunite with her children," she recounted, noting that her three kids — Mason, 17, Braden, 15, and Tucker, 10 — were fortunately not at school on Monday.
Sadly, this isn't Melissa's first experience with a school shooting.
Prior to moving to Nashville in 2020, her family lived in Connecticut for many years.
"We moved here from Connecticut where we were in school a little ways down from Sandy Hook, so this is our second experience with a school shooting with our kids being in close proximity," she told her 1.7 million followers. "Luckily, we are all okay."
The Sandy Hook shooting took place in December 2012, when 20-year-old Adam Lanza shot and killed 20 children and six adults after killing his mother in their home.
Melissa ended her video with one final message.
"Prayers today, action tomorrow," she said, joining a growing number of celebrities speaking out on social media and demanding stricter gun regulations.
"As a mother, I'm p—ed the f— off," country singer Mickey Guyton tweeted. "Shame on every single politician OK with doing nothing as children are getting assassinated on an everyday basis in a place that is supposed to be their safe haven."
No Country for Old Men star Josh Brolin also vented his anger and frustration about America's lax gun laws.
"ENOUGH!!!!!! Whether you're a 'It's the people not the guns' or a 'It's the guns, not the people' to say that our country is actively doing anything in its power to help avert this absolute random slaughter of our children, categorizes you in either total denial or living some fantasy of ambush that should render you unfit to take care of yourself or others," he wrote on Instagram.
The Nashville tragedy also hit close to home for Shawn Johnson East.
The former gymnast has two children who were at a nearby school while the shooting was taking place. She rushed to pick them up and then took to her Instagram Stories to recount her terrifying experience.
"I haven't been able to catch my breath since reading the news and getting a call that they were on lockdown. Shaking. Crying. Heartbreaking. Horrific," she wrote (via ET Canada), describing the chaos she watched unfold around her.
"I've seen children's ambulances, countless police cars, buses of children being transported to safety, parents flying down the street laying on their horns, people sprinting in and out of churches and schools looking for their kids. Today has changed me."
Her husband, Andrew East, shared this emotional video of Shawn reuniting with oldest daughter Drew after picking her up.
Six innocent lives were lost in Monday's shooting.
Three 9-year-old children and three adults, including the head of the school and a custodian, were killed when the shooter, identified as 28-year-old Audrey Hale, shot her way into the building and unleashed a deadly rampage. On Wednesday night, a citywide candlelight vigil will be held in Nashville's Public Square Park to honor the victims of this senseless tragedy.
