When Mike DeFilippo \u201978 heard about the\n2018 school shooting in Parkland, Fla., he\nasked himself, \u201cAm I prepared to take a bullet\nfor kids?\u201d Yes, he was, he decided.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DeFilippo is a substitute teacher at Central\nVisual and Performing Arts (CVPA) High\nSchool in St. Louis, Mo. He\u2019s taught a variety\nof subjects in different classrooms for the\npast five years, and thus, has trained himself\nto have situational awareness. \u201cWhenever I\ngo into a room,\u201d he says, \u201cI always figure out,\n\u2018How would I defend this room?\u2019\u201d\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So on Oct. 24, 2022, when a 19-year-old\nentered the school with an AR-15\u2013style rifle,\nDeFilippo had a plan. He was alerted when\nthe principal announced, \u201cMiles Davis is in\nthe building\u201d \u2014 the school\u2019s code for an active\nshooter. A security guard came running down\nthe hallway and told DeFilippo to get inside\nand lock the door. \u201cImmediately, we heard\nsirens,\u201d DeFilippo says.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They next heard shots. Boom. Boom.\nBoom. DeFilippo wheeled a SMART Board in\nfront of the classroom\u2019s door. As practiced,\nthe students had moved to the back of the\nclassroom; he flipped desks on their sides\nfor the teens to hide behind. Meanwhile,\nDeFilippo grabbed a stand from a physics lab\nto use as a club.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then they waited. Approximately 15 minutes later, there was a bang on the door and the police yelled, \u201cOpen up!\u201d The teacher paused until he heard a different officer\u2019s voice telling them to open the door. \u201cI unlocked the door, and as soon as I did, the kids took off,\u201d DeFilippo says. They were all escorted to a staging area, where investigators, counselors, and reporters stood ready. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSome of the kids wrote me emails after,\nthanking me for keeping them safe,\u201d he says.\n\u201cBroke my heart.\u201d\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A teacher \u2014 who was one year from retirement \u2014 did have to take a bullet for her students that day. She died, as well as a 15-year-old student. Police killed the shooter, who was an alumnus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because the school was a crime scene,\nDeFilippo wasn\u2019t allowed to drive his car\nhome. A friend picked him up, and when he\nreturned to his house around 1 p.m., he called\nloved ones to let them know he was safe. The\nrest of the day was a blur.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DeFilippo got into teaching after a career\nas a photojournalist and commercial studio\nphotographer. The photography profession\ncan be hard on the body, between lugging\ncumbersome gear and the long hours. \u201cIt\u2019s a\nyoung person\u2019s game,\u201d he quips.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When DeFilippo switched to part-time photography, he started substitute teaching, which he finds \u201crewarding and challenging.\u201d He has since retired from commercial photography and has embraced full-time teaching. This year he serves as the teacher of record (which includes the responsibility of awarding grades) for physics under a new program called Interim Learning Associate, designed to fill a teacher shortage after the pandemic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The shooter had mental health problems, and his family had previously sent him for counseling. His mother discovered the gun in early October and called 911 to have the police take it away, but they said he was lawfully allowed to own the weapon. After the incident, some school officials and local lawmakers proposed the passing of a red flag law, which prevents the sale of and removes weapons from those deemed as a threat. DeFilippo sees the possibility as something good to come of the tragedy. \u201cLet\u2019s have a little sanity in America,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When the Columbine High School\nshooting happened in 1999, DeFilippo\nhappened to be in the midst of a personal\nproject photographing cannons around the\ncountry. Titled Local Ordnance, the series\ncame about when he was traveling for work\nand noticed \u201ceverywhere there\u2019s a cannon,
\na tank, or some piece of ordnance in a\ncommunity,\u201d he says. For example, during the\nCold War, America built an atomic cannon\nthat fires a nuclear shell. DeFilippo found\nthree of them, including one in Yuma, Ariz.,\n\u201cthe largest land gun ever made.\u201d Finding\n\u201cthese different sub-stories\u201d across the\ncountry, \u201cI had the whole map filled by 2013.\u201d\nHe included it in his 30-year retrospective\nshow, which raised money for a local women\u2019s\nshelter. Following the St. Louis shooting last\nyear, \u201cI started revisiting [Local Ordnance],\nand I thought, \u2018I guess I saw this coming.\u2019\nAmerica\u2019s a land of guns.\u201d\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CVPA closed for several weeks following the shooting and then switched to remote learning. During winter break, the school made repairs \u2014 patching bullet holes, fixing windows \u2014 and upgraded its security system. They returned to in-person learning in January: \u201cStudents and staff are on a wide spectrum in regard to their healing from the trauma,\u201d DeFilippo says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cArming teachers is not a solution to the\nepidemic of gun violence gripping the nation,\u201d\nhe emphasizes. \u201cI\u2019m never going to carry a gun\nat work. Gun violence is a disease. You don\u2019t\nstop a disease by spreading it.\u201d\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n