Travis Lamb was a couple of hours into his first day as Youth Activities director at Stephens Valley Church, getting the “dime tour,” when he started getting text messages about a shooter in the Covenant Presbyterian School neighborhood.
It was March 27.
As it turned out, the shooter was inside his children’s school.
Audrey Elizabeth Hale, by this time, had begun her deadly errand, shooting her way into the Christian elementary school and killing three 9-year-olds and three adult staff members. Less than a quarter hour into the rampage, Hale was dead, too — fatally shot by police officers.
Lamb’s oldest child, a second-grader, was out of town at the time, in Chicago, visiting friends with his mother. Lamb’s younger children, a kindergartener and another in Pre-K, were at the school. His son was on the playground with his classmates.
“I said, ‘I got to go. I don’t know what’s going on but I’ll figure it out on the way,’” Lamb, 40, of Brentwood, told The Tennessee Star this week in an exclusive interview. “At this point, the texts and calls are flying. There’s confusion about where the parents are supposed to go, could go, where was it? People are calling and texting me, asking me, ‘What’s going on?’ I’m trying to get my kids. I don’t know.”
After arriving on the scene, Lamb and fellow Covenant parents were informed that their children were safe, but the school remained locked down. They would have to wait until mid-afternoon to be reunited.
The parents of third-graders Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney did not have that opportunity.
Lamb’s kindergartener was among a group of children escorted by staff off the property after the shooting started.
“They hiked down the hill through the woods. There’s nothing but woods there, right up to Hillsboro,” he said. “They crossed the road and there was an apartment building where one of the kids knew a lady.”
The woman took in the children, who were fed donuts, watched “Sonic the Hedgehog” and petted dogs while they waited.
Yes, Lamb has thought about the counterfactuals — what if Hale, who attended the private elementary school years ago, had started her rampage on the playground?
“It would have been like fish in a barrel,” he said, pausing. “I’ve thought about that one I don’t know how any times.”
It seems the 28-year-old mass murderer had a plan in mind, and she stuck to that plan, Lamb said.
He’s definitely in the minority of Covenant School parents, but the father of three wants to see Hale’s manifesto and related writings made public. He said the public — parents — need to know what drove such an evil act against innocent children and their teachers.
“I don’t shy away from information,” Lamb said. “We’ve got a person here who has a church upbringing and at the same time went to the same Christian school. I can’t presume I’m not raising another one. If I can gain insight into her thoughts, speech patterns, anything like that … that’s invaluable to me as a parent.”
According to court filings, the “vast majority” of Covenant student parents don’t agree with Lamb’s position. They’ve been allowed to intervene in a lawsuit, filed by the parent company of The Star and others seeking the release of Hale’s manifesto. The parents, the school, and the Covenant Presbyterian Church have allied themselves with the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department and Nashville government in fighting the release of the records.
Some despise the plaintiffs for demanding Hale’s writings be made public.
Erin Kinney, mother of William Kinney, in a court declaration asserts the plaintiffs don’t care about the “wellbeing of their fellow humans” and “seek to rob the six murder victims of dignity in their deaths by demanding the release of sensitive details …”
“These petitioners have shown no respect or regard for my family or for the hundreds of surviving Covenant trauma victims, even going so far as to shamefully deny their victimhood before you, as they seek to publish and profit from the deranged, hateful, and exceedingly dangerous ramblings of an individual who renounced her humanity and gunned down children,” the mother wrote.
The Star, The Tennessean and the other plaintiffs say there is no profit motive, just the duty to inform the public. They argue that law enforcement has routinely and, in many cases, released manifestos and relevant writings from other mass murderers. In this case, the Metro Nashville Police Department claims there is an ongoing criminal procedure preventing the documents’ release. Plaintiffs argue that there is no such ongoing procedure. The shooter is dead, and police have said she acted alone.
It’s all being sorted out in court nearly three months after the horrific event.
In court documents and in press conferences, parents have said they fear Hale’s writings would lead to “copycat” incidents. They also don’t want to have to re-live the trauma through broadcast and print accounts of Hale’s manifesto.
Lamb said he has voiced his views with fellow Covenant School family members. He remains on the “opposite side.” While he disagrees with their position, he said he supports them. He just wants answers.
“There’s so much talk about mental health, especially the mental health of kids. Here’s a specific situation where we could maybe gather valuable information,” he said.
Lamb said he’s been open with his kids about that nightmarish morning in March. He said it’s important they know the truth.
“I tell my kids that information is not the enemy,” he said. “There’s darkness and there’s light shining on the darkness.”
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M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
Photo “Covenant School” by Metro Nashville PD.
I see no need to give this shooter the satisfaction of anyone reading this manifesto. There was a reason she wrote this to have one last say.
I do not want to know what it said.
She is not important or is it a political ploy?
There are a lot of great agents out there in the field offices.
DC on the other hand is like a giant toilet where investigations get flushed down the toilet to the Potomac and carried out to the deep waters to go away.
Meds can do it. Remember the phrase going postal Most of the shooters had traces of Prozac in their blood.
Social media can do this to kids. Look at how many kids die from stupid games or dares on all the social media platforms!.
They are exposed to violence daily, Hollywood, Games, Social Media, Peer Pressure etc.
Maybe if the kids had some trade classes it may give them a direction and purpose.
Have the kids now can’t do simple math, spell, read or write.
It is sad that this is the World we now live in.
Bad is now good and good is now bad.
Bill Lee is dead set on punishing the Law-abiding firearms owners with Los Angeles Red Flag Laws.
I’d like to know what kind of Meds. the shooter was taking and who prescribed them. After the shooting many in the LGBTQ were calling for violence against those with different views. Have they been investigated?
The FBI has some great Active Shooter Resources. Parents, students and school personnel should take a look.
The knowledge that lies in the Manifesto can save lives.
In stark contrast to other similar murders, some want to cover up and protect pertinent information on the murderer’s motive, methods and possible associates, but pass some reactionary laws that target the rights of and punish those of us who are lawful peaceable citizens. This secrecy suggests a really clandestine sinister agenda.
“The very word ‘secrecy’ is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths, and to secret proceedings.” – John F. Kennedy
Any time the FIB gets involved, there will be sequestered information cleared only through the J.Edgar Hoover bldg in DC.
Example is the CCP Balloon. It was leaked that up to two Boxcar Loads of debris of the downed balloon had been recovered. Do you think there will be full disclosure of what was discovered?
This is a sad time in our USA when a Federal Police Force has grown out of a bureacracy created initially to ASSIST local and state police investigations. Now they smother and sequester any and all information they can get their hands on. Their information is only released to the public through leaks and only when politically expedient. Local and State investigatory departments, with local and state police power, should not be doing business with such out-of-control DC bureau.
I won’t hold my breath waiting to see this article in the MSM. My sympathies for the Covenant School are rapidly evaporating because of their behavior that screams we have something to hide.
Im a parent. I cant imagine what kind of pain the parents of these MUDERED CHILDREN must be going through. NOT Releasing this crazy woman’s manifeso, will not reduce that pain. I still think the FBI is using psychological techniques on the very vulnerable parents of the children MURDERED in their “safe” school, to convince them that SILENCE is better than TRANSPARENCY.
There are many more parents in Davidson County who do want to know how a Christian CHILD could be transformed into a horrific MURDERER.
RELEASE THE MANIFESTO OR CANCEL THE DAMN SPECIAL SESSION TO PASS LAWS THAT WILL NOT STOP A MURDERER WHO WANTS TO MURDER.
She could just have easily planted a bomb on the playground, or used a knife or hammer or poison.
There are many ways to murder. So why focus on just guns?
SOMEONE NEEDS TO KEEP THE MANIFESTO FROM BEING MADE PUBLIC. WHO COULD IT BE THAT THEY ARE COVERING UP FOR?
Any information that the General Assembly is withholding concerning the expenses surrounding Scotty Campbell’s case should be released as well. “Information is not the enemy”..
Why the euphemism “killer” that is so often used today. Murders are committed by MURDERS and these children and teachers were in fact murdered! As a Christian, this also applies to babies who are aborted. They are not just killed in the womb ——- they are murdered but society has tried to soften the fact of this by referring to it as killing at the very worst.