Jenna Bush Hager.Photo: Paul Morigi/WireImage
ForJenna Bush Hager, Monday’sschool shooting in Nashvillehit close to home.
On Tuesday, Bush Hager told herTODAYco-hostHoda Kotb, “I had a friend in Nashville so I knew of one of the little girls who is 9, who went to school yesterday and who didn’t come home.”
Bush Hager did not identify the victim of Monday’s attack, in which three children and three adults were killed. But she said the shooting, at the Covenant School, a private elementary school, left her profoundly shaken.
“The thought that any of us can send our children on the busses, or walking or drop them off at carpool, and not get to hug them again? It’s just beyond,” she said.
Thefatal victims of Monday’s attackwere Evelyn Dieckhaus, 9, Hallie Scruggs, 9, William Kinney, 9, Cynthia Peak, 61, Katherine Koonce, 60, and Mike Hill, 61.
Nashville school shooting.John Amis/AP/Shutterstock
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Bush Hager, a mother of three, and Kotb, a mother of two, had an emotional conversation about the shooting, discussing the terror parents feel when they don’t know their children are safe.
Said Kotb: “And to imagine those parents lined up going into that school thinking, ‘Is my child going to be alright.’ There were mothers banging on buses, screaming their children’s names. I had a friend who lives in Nashville who was telling me about what she heard about and seen. She said, ‘They were screaming cause they had to find their child.'”
Bush Hager, a former teacher, said the United States is failing to protect children “at the place they’re most safe, they should be safest.”
“Forget politics,” she said. “Isn’t every mom and dad sitting there thinking, ‘What is happening to this?’ … Let’s not fail our kids.”
How to help
You can donate to the families of the victims through theThe Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee.ViVEandVictimsFirsthave also created GoFundMe pages for donations. Both fundraisers are verified.
source: people.com
