Fullerton Junior High Teacher Credited With Protecting Students From Intruder

FULLERTON (CBSLA.com) — A Fullerton junior high school teacher is being credited with protecting her students after an intruder wandered into her classroom last month.

Robyn Clemente, an eighth-grade language arts instructor at Nicolas Junior High School, helped her 34 students when an agitated 24-year-old man, allegedly on drugs, burst into her class and ordered the kids to the ground, threw furniture and grabbed a student by the leg.

"The suspect was on the ground and he was holding onto the desk. His hand was bleeding. And a student was under the desk and he was pinning another student down on the ground," said Clemente.

The teacher said her instinct was to distract the suspect, Aaron Bennett.

"I made the judgment call to talk to him to make sure my students were safe," said Clemente. "As I was talking to him to distract him, I moved my students against the wall. I noticed that he did have one of my students pinned down. I continued to introduce myself and to try and distract him."

A student and Clemente were honored by city officials for their bravery.

"What she did was absolutely heroic. She put herself in a potential danger to protect her children. She put herself between the suspect and her kids to ensure they were able to get out of the classroom safely. She didn't think about any harm to herself, but thought solely about her children in the class," said Sgt. Jeff Stuart of the Fullerton Police Department.

One week prior to the incident, the students and Clemente practiced a similar scenario in a lockdown drill on campus.

Clemente also said she talked to her kids about active shooter situations.