A window shattering in a class of about a dozen students jolted Jourdin Dwyer's teacher into action, KGUN9's Valerie Cavazos reported.
"My teacher screamed out loud telling us get under the desk," Dwyer said. "Get under the desk and she ran right over to start pushing the call button."
An intercom alerted the office of a problem. Then came more shattering sounds in quick succession.
Fearing it could be bullets, Dwyer and her classmates remained under the desks.
"She was frantically pushing the button and nobody was answering," Dwyer said.
It took 8 minutes for a school monitor to show up and confirm that rocks shattered the windows.
"He didn't seem like it was a big deal," Dwyer said. "He just kind of walked in as if everything was good but he didn't reassure us it was okay."
Principal Roberto Estrella praised the teacher's response.
"She put her students in a safe spot immediately," Estrella said. "She communicated with them. She tried to reach out to the office as fast as possible. The refinements we have to do locally would be how can we respond quicker."
But the delay wasn't the only issue. Dwyer says the school didn't reach out to ask about her emotional state.
"Although it wasn't a terrible situation, it could have been worse," she said. "It's still a traumatic situation."
Dwyer's father, Craig Dwyer, says he got the details of the ordeal from his daughter, not the school.
"I think they should have pulled her in that day," he said.
While Estrella works to fix how the school responds to these crisis situations, the district is reaching out to parents district-wide for their input.
