Saturday 28 May 2022 11:40 PM Texas Army veteran now works as voluntary unarmed sentry at front door to his ... trends now
A Texas Army veteran has taken it upon himself to guard his daughter's elementary school following the massacre in Uvalde, which saw 19 young children and two teachers slaughtered last week.
Ed Chelby said he was having trouble sleeping in the aftermath of the devastating school shooting, and emailed the superintendent of the Killeen Independent School District at 1am to see if he could guard outside Saegert Elementary - where his daughter goes to school and his wife works as a school nurse.
'I can't let this go,' he told KWTX. 'I said I would just be out there unarmed to let people know that I'm watching. Let the parents have a little bit of relief.'
To his surprise, KWTX reported, the superintendent told Chelby he could stand guard by the main entrance - and so for the last two days of the school year, he was seen patrolling outside the school about four hours from Uvalde.
'I've had a lot of emotional people come up to me,' said Chelby - who served in the Army for 11 years and has a background in security.
'They didn't want to send their kids to school,' he said of his fellow parents. 'They struggled with sending their kids to school.
'And I told them, I was like, "I got them."
'We're all struggling with that,' he admitted. 'You don't know if you should send your kid to school.
'You want them to get their education and their experiences of the last days of school, but you want to protect them with everything you got.'
Ed Chelby, a parent of a daughter at Saegert Elementary School in Killeen, Texas, volunteered to stand guard outside the school following the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde
Chelby could be seen patrolling outside of the school as it finished up its last few days
A photo of Chelby standing outside the school has since gone viral on social media
A photo of Chelby standing outside the school has since gone viral on social media, and Eli Lopez, the principal of the school, said his efforts were overwhelmingly appreciated by parents and students for restoring some sense of security.
'Him standing in front of the school, that's reassuring,' said one mother, Samantha Longfeather-Locke, who posted the photo of him online.
Other parents have also offered to drop something off for him to drink, and Lopez said one mother approached him in tars to thank him for helping her and her child feel safe at school.
'A child should never have to worry for their safety as they come into school, and Mr. Chelby helped ensure that sense of security the last two days of school after a horrific tragedy,' Lopez said in a statement to Newsweek.
Lopez added that another parent, a veteran mom, has also volunteered to keep watch on the back of the school, and other parents have volunteered for a safety program for the next school year.
'As I took time to check on them and express my personal appreciation, they both expressed the simple act they felt they were taking on of being present as the least they could do,'
