When a gunman entered the lobby of Pauls Valley High School in Oklahoma and pointed a weapon at students, 60-year-old Principal Kirk Moore did not hesitate for a single second. He charged directly at the attacker, tackled him to the ground, and held him there until police arrived, taking a bullet in the leg during the struggle and very likely preventing what investigators say could have been a devastating mass tragedy. The gunman had arrived with two semi-automatic weapons and explicit intentions to harm as many people as possible, telling investigators he had specifically chosen to target Moore, and the principal’s fearless and immediate response stopped him before a single student was injured, with Moore being airlifted to hospital and later released with a full recovery expected. Two weeks after the attack, he walked back into his school’s prom to celebrate alongside the students he had protected.
What happened next has since been seen by millions of people around the world. The DJ stopped the music, called Moore to the center of the room, and announced that the students had voted to crown him their prom king, a title traditionally reserved for a popular student that has never quite carried the weight it carried in that gymnasium on that particular night. The entire room erupted as the crown was placed on his head, with students cheering, jumping, and rushing forward to give him high fives while the song Hero played through the speakers. Students who know him said the outpouring was no surprise at all, and that the prom crown was simply the most honest and heartfelt way they knew to look their principal in the eye and say thank you for putting himself between them and something truly unthinkable.
