Former Barbieri Teacher Ushered Students to Safety In Newtown

Last year, Jaclyn Lloyd was working at Barbieri Elementary School in Framingham, as a physical education teacher.

Last Friday, Lloyd was one of dozens of teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School who hid and saved students from a gunman who has broken into their school in Newtown.

Even in the gym, the loudest room in any school on a given day, something sounded very wrong, according to students.

“Really loud bangs,” said Brendan Murray, 9, who was there with his fourth-grade class. “We thought that someone was knocking something over. And we heard yelling and we heard gunshots. We heard lots of gunshots.”

“We heard someone say, “ ‘Put your hands up!’ ” Brendan told the New York Times. “I heard, ‘Don’t shoot!’ We had to go into the closet in the gym.”

In Lloyd's gym class, student Elise Beier and her fourth-grade classmates huddle briefly in a corner, before teachers usher them into a hiding place: a storage closet, reported Newsday.

Once huddled in a corner, some of the fourth-graders  began to cry. One of them was 10-year-old Philip Makris, reported NBC Connecticut.

"He said he heard a lot of loud noises and then screaming," said his mother, Melissa Makris to NBC Connecticut. "Then the gym teachers immediately gathered the children in a corner and kept them safe."

Another girl who was in the gym recalled hearing "like, seven loud booms."

"The gym teacher told us to go in a corner, so we all huddled and I kept hearing these booming noises," the girl, who was not identified by name, told NBC News. "We all started—well, we didn't scream; we started crying, so all the gym teachers told us to go into the office where no one could find us."

Lloyd escaped physically unharmed from the event Friday.

"She is safe and has been in communication with our school staff," said Barbieri Elementary co-PTO president and school employee Cristina Sandza-Donovan.

"We are grateful for this blessing," said Framingham Superintendent of School Stacy Scott in an email to staff.

Donovan sent out an email to the school community Saturday letting them know Lloyd was safe. Scott sent out an email to Framingham Public school staff Sunday doing the same.

Lloyd, who grew up here in MetroWest, has strong ties to Framingham.

Not only did she teach at Barbieri, she and her family have ties to two Framingham eateries.

Jackie's dad Richard Lloyd owns where Jackie once waitressed. And Jackie's sister Jennifer Madden, her husband, their dad, and Jackie are the owner's of O'Connell's Pub, named after Jackie's late grandmother Margaret O'Connell.

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