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like a long time, his back pain
worsened and his skin felt wet.
Emergency medical technicians
eventually arrived and began
treating kachadourian on the
spot. Taken from the building
on a stretcher, he heard a
commotion.
“I knew it looked like I was
dead, but I really wasn’t,” he
said. “I could have gotten
up and walked out. I gave a
thumbs-up to signal that I was
okay.”
After being bandaged at the
hospital, kachadourian was
released and felt well
enough to appear on ABC’s
“Nightline” the same day and
“Good Morning America” the
day after.
“That celebrity thing was sort
of fun and ok, but not real
important,” kachadourian
said, noting that he
“purposely did not watch
anything.” He also received
calls and cards from friends
and strangers from all over
the country. “People would
stop me on the street,” he
said. “I had parents come
up to me with tears in their
eyes.”
kachadourian said the
support was uplifting,
and that it was good to be
considered a hero — even if
for the wrong reasons.
“As I thought about it, what I
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believe is I did a lot of heroic
stuff, but not on that day,” he
said. “Coming to school day
after day and dealing with
hundreds of kids while
treating them with respect
is really heroic. I’m a hero
because of how I live my life
and do my job.”
In its sixth year, SuccessTech
is an alternative high school
in the public school district
that stresses technology
and entrepreneurship. The
school ranks in the middle
of Ohio’s ratings for student
performance. Its graduation
rate is 94 percent, well
above the district’s rate of 55
percent.
Attracted by its small size and
the opportunity to interact
with smaller classes of
students, kachadourian began
teaching at SuccessTech
four years ago. Budget
cuts, however, had recently
doubled class sizes to 30-40
students and created a stress-
ful environment, he said.
The school was closed the day
after the shooting and had
already been scheduled to
close that Friday. Teachers
met with parents the
following Monday and classes
resumed on Tuesday.
“I feel like I’ve been really gifted
through this whole process,” he said.
“I believe that this gift comes
with a challenge and I’m excited but
anxious to discern
what that challenge will be.”
“That afternoon we were
supposed to have class, but I
was a zombie,” kachadourian
said. He returned to work on
Wednesday, but took three
days off. “I needed more time,
but I also knew the most
healing thing for me would be
to be with the kids.”
kachadourian said his physical
recovery went quickly, but the
emotional recovery took time.
The school environment
has also improved with the
addition of two teachers in
November, another security
guard and a metal detector.
kachadourian said he was
never concerned for his
personal safety or that the
school lacked sufficient
security. “I never expected
anything like this to happen,”
he said. “I didn’t expect it
from this kid.”
The incident changed his
perspective and allows him
to empathize with events
like the Nebraska rampage
on Dec. 5. In that case, a 19year-old
gunman killed eight
people and then himself at the
Westroads Mall in Omaha.
“When you’ve been through
it, it seems really real,” he
said. “I can imagine what
those people feel like.”
Since the SuccessTech
shooting, kachadourian said
there’s a “somewhat different
feeling of appreciation and
caring among teachers and
students and being willing
to express it.” That also
helped with his feelings of
frustration.
“As a teacher, I often feel like
I’m not accomplishing anything,”
he said. “It happens a
lot less since the shooting.”
While he wouldn’t go so far
to call the incident lifechanging,
he admits that it
was a profound experience. “I
feel like I’ve been really gifted
through this whole process,”
he said. “I believe that this gift
comes with a challenge and I’m
excited but anxious to discern
what that challenge will be.”
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