Brady Olson may have been known before by his students as the popular AP Government and Politics teacher. But after the events on April 27, he will now forever be remembered as the hero who bravely tackled a student shooter inside North Thurston High School in Washington state.
On Monday morning, before classes were to begin, a 16-year-old student (whose name has not been released yet) walked down the steps from the gym into the lunchroom with a cigarette in his mouth and a gun in his hand, according to student Anthony Rybalkin. As he explained to the Associated Press, Rybalkin, 16, and his friends heard a loud boom and when they saw the gun, they thought it was fake, until the student fired off a second round into the air. Students began running out the back door, but before he could fire any more shots, teacher Brady Olson did the unthinkable. He ran towards the gunfire and tackled the shooter, with the fully loaded revolver still in the student’s hand. He reportedly knocked the gun away and held the student down. Within seconds, three other staff members helped to subdue the teen.
According to Olson’s account, he heard the first shot go off and ran to investigate. When he saw the shooter smoking, his first thought was that smoking was banned on campus, until he noticed the handgun the student was carrying. After he fired a second time, Olson came from behind a pillar and tackled him, intending primarily to get the gun away before anybody could be harmed. Olson said that as he was holding the student down, he had a quiet conversation with him to assure him he would get the help he needed.
The student reportedly stole the gun from his parents, and told detectives that he never intended to harm any students. He had recently transferred to North Thurston from Mount Rainier High School near Seattle. According to one of his friends, Alexa Carpenter, 15, he had appeared to be fitting in alright until she received texts from him Friday night which read, “It does not matter anyway after tonight,” and “I decided I need to go, it’s my time,” hinting that the shooting could have been a suicide mission. He is currently being held in a juvenile detention facility as the investigation continues.
Meanwhile, Olson, who is being lauded by his students and the community as a hero, shrugs off the title, asserting that he simply did what any decent person would have done in that situation.
“It was just one of those things,” said Olson. “I saw kids fleeing and it kind of fired me up to do something and I did it. It’s as simple as that.”
He also joked that perhaps he should be more accurately portrayed by the media as the “dumb guy who didn’t run away.”
Whatever the motivation was for his incredible act of bravery, we salute Brady Olson for stepping in where others may not have. His actions not only prevented any harm to the students of North Thurston, but also saved the life of the young student carrying the gun, who would have most likely been gunned down by the police had Olson not tackled him. Best teacher ever.