Pauls Valley High School students crowned Kirk Moore prom king on Friday night, a school celebration that came after the principal was shot while disarming an armed intruder during an attack on campus four days earlier.
Moore charged at the attacker after investigators say Victor Lee Hawkins entered the school at about 2.30pm on 7 April, pointed a pistol and yelled for everyone to get on the ground. School surveillance video captured the intrusion. Hawkins pointed his gun at a female student in the lobby and pulled the trigger, but the weapon malfunctioned. He then pointed the gun at a male student in the foyer before Moore and another staff member moved in, disarmed him and stopped the attack. Moore was shot in the leg during the struggle.
The attack unfolded at Pauls Valley High School, about 60 miles, or 96.6km, south of Oklahoma City, and investigators said Hawkins was carrying two semi-automatic handguns. They said he fired several shots before being disarmed. Court documents described Hawkins, a former Pauls Valley High School student, as obsessed with the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School. Authorities said Moore prevented a tragedy and possible mass shooting at his school, and Police Chief Don May said he had no doubt the principal saved children’s lives.
The Friday night prom celebration brought the story back to the person at its center. As Moore stood before students who had lived through the attack, an announcer called out, “Ladies and gentlemen, our king,” turning a senior-night tradition into a public salute to the man who had rushed toward danger when the school was under threat.
Moore said he was grateful for the outpouring of love and support after the attack, and said educators prepare for moments like this through training and careful assessment of threats. The prom crown was more than a gesture. It was the school’s way of saying the same thing investigators already concluded: when the gunman entered Pauls Valley High School, the kirk moore principal acted first, and that response kept the day from becoming far worse.
