'Our Teachers Told Us To Run': Restaurant Provided Shelter For Students After Shooting
HIGHLANDS RANCH, Colo. (CBS4) - The fatal shooting at STEM School Highlands Ranch Tuesday brought back dark memories of tragedy for a local bartender. Julie Finkelstein, bartender for Rock Bottom Brewery, was a teacher in Parkland Florida where the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting took place.
She worked closely with the school's journalism program, and quit after feeling unsafe as a teacher.
"After that, that made my decision quite clear. That I was no longer safe being a teacher," Finkelstein told CBS4's Dillon Thomas.
Finkelstein moved to Colorado and started bartending. She never imagined she would find herself in the middle of another school shooting just one year later.
"All of a sudden I looked up and saw a stream of kids piling in to the back (of Rock Bottom)," Finkelstein said.
Students were running away from nearby STEM School Highlands Ranch, where two student gunmen entered the building and shot several students, killing one.
"One of my servers came running in and said, 'Jimmy, there are all these kids coming in to the restaurant,'" said Jimmy Gibson, general manager of Rock Bottom Brewery. "There was literally kid after kid coming in the front door. The kids were saying, 'Our teachers told us to run.'"
Rock Bottom is located only blocks away from the school. Gibson said he called police to see if the students were in real danger.
"They confirmed, yes, there was an active shooter at the STEM school down the street. And, to lock our doors and keep the kids safe," Gibson said.
Gibson sand Finkelstein said the students were visibly shaken, especially one girl. Both said there was a girl who was likely younger than a 6th grader, who was physically shaking.
"She was shaking uncontrollably. She apparently had a brother in the school who didn't get out," Gibson said.
"(She said), 'My friends have holes in them.' She was hysterical," Finkelstein said.
Finkelstein said students huddled in the corner of the room, crouching low to the ground. The staff locked the doors, and told the students they were safe. Some staff provided cellphones and tablets for students to contact their families on.
"I went into teacher mode," Finkelstein said.
Finkelstein said she helped compile a list of students in the room, and others assisted in the effort to reunite concerned parents with their children. She said one mother was shaken after realizing only one of her children was in the restaurant. Finkelstein said the mother panicked when realizing her other child was unaccounted for.
Gibson applauded his fellow business operators in the area, including Chick-Fil-A and Starbucks. Many stores took kids in and held them for safety.
Moving to Colorado and bartending were supposed to be an escape from school violence for Finkelstein. Instead, she found herself once again at the center of another senseless shooting. She said the shooting changed her perspective on reality.
"You can move a thousand miles away, and it doesn't change. The society we are living in today is where we are, unfortunately," Finkelstein said.
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