Dunblane 29 years ago

My husband was a keen shooter and I met one of his friends shortly after the shooting. This chap had been driving up the motorway when he heard the news. He said he had to pull off the road and stop. He was ex army and had been posted to war zones, so he knew what bullets could do to children. At that point his livelihood was based round shooting, but he couldn't keep on with it.

I was teaching a Primary One class (same age as the Dunblane children) in a Scottish school and the janitor came in and said "you need to hear this on the TV" while the children were at afternoon break. It was so shocking. My wee ones only had 45 mins in class before the end of the day and I remember walking them up to the school gates and their Mummies just hugging them. I walked back down to the school in tears. Makes me cry even now. Even before it happened it used to cross my mind "what if...?"

I remember watching it on the tv, totally unable to tear myself away from the screen. How horrible it must have been for the parents outside the school waiting hours on the news that their child was safe, not knowing if the parents being called before you were given good or bad news.
Imagine being a member of the emergency services, or medical staff in the hospital.....not sure how they coped either.

I stopped at our local corner shop on my way home from work, lived in London at the time. The shopkeeper was watching the news on a tiny tv behind the counter and knowing I was Scottish he turned the screen round and asked me if I knew this place. He was from India and I was from Scotland, we shared a sense of horror and a few tears in that moment.

My daughter was 8 when this happened.
I hadn't realised how much notice she'd taken or how distressed she was until the next morning.
When she'd gone to school, I found the morning paper, with it's school photo of the class and Mrs Mayer.
My 8 year old daughter had carefully circled the faces of every child who died ,and Mrs Mayer.
It broke my heart even more 💔

Living in Dunblane with two children and a niece and nephew at school in Dunblane at the time by anyone.it was a nightmare come true. All were safe. It may not make the headlines now many here prefer it that way but be assured they are never forgotten

My own son was born on this day, the 13th March 1996. I remember having just given birth and hearing people talking about it. A very bittersweet day. I gained a precious child, others lost a precious child.
I also remember the nurses saying that the same number of babies born in the hospital that day was the same number of children that lost their lives in Dunblane.

Very, very sad 😢

My oldest child had recently started school, so was around a year younger than these children. My third and youngest child was born about three weeks later. I think it just made me want to hug my own children tightly. Such a terrible, wicked thing to happen. Those poor, poor children and their families and their brave teacher. I still think about that day quite often. Many of those children would almost certainly be parents to school aged children themselves had this not happened. That class photo still has the power to shock and upset us. I hope it always will.

It's amazing when you realise what a difference this event has made to schools today with secure fencing and locked gates with security systems. My childrens' primary school had already been gated for some years as had many others.
A really world changing moment, not just for parents who lost children but in a lesser way for the rest of us, many of whom no longer felt secure leaving our children.

Living near Dunblane two of my own school friends had children in the class one was injured one died It's a day I will never forget

I remember being told the news by the nursery nurse at my daughter's school nursery, during my shift as volunteer helper. I felt sick - it was just something that terrified every parent. One of those minutes that you always remember for ever, even though it didn't directly affect you.

At work when a colleague received the news she had lost her granddaughter in the massacre. The memory will last forever.

Security in schools is so much greater nowadays with schools having lockdown procedures etc. After I left one school where I'd worked, and moved to another, still working part time, I went back on a day off to visit old colleagues. There was no-one in reception but I still remembered the door code so let myself in and made my way to the staffroom. I got a major telling off for going in unaccompanied, and had to be escorted out when I left. I'd worked there for over 3 years and hadn't been gone long!

An absolutely diabolical slaughter of innocents.... but how quickly they forget .thank you for the chilling reminder

I worked as Secretary in a Health Visitors and District Nurses clinic which overlooked a primary school. It was lunchtime and I stood in the clinic kitchen and cried

Grandma70s Hamilton was a family acquaintance though, Andy Murray attended his childrens club, his mum would give him a lift, Andy would be nine at the time of the shooting.

I was surprised and disappointed that no mention was made of this anniversary elsewhere although of course it would hang heavy in Dunblane.

I too was teaching at a primary school. The headteacher heard the news and decided - I really am not sure why - to go round to each classroom from nursery through to Y6 telling all the children and staff. It really hit my Y6 class hard because at the time I was taking them for a PE lesson in the hall, which is where many of the Dunblane children were killed. We all struggled for the rest of the day. And yes, after that awful incident, schools were surrounded by high fences with locked gates, and main doors with intercoms.

I remember going into the common room at university and finding a Dutch girl I knew in a distressed state. She had heard the news on the radio, and struggled to find enough English words to explain what had happened. It was so shocking.

The tennis player Andy Murray went to that school, but was not in the class that was attacked.

Such a horrendous day. All those little lives, gone - to think that they'd all be grown up by now, many probably with families of their own.

I heard the news and called my husband immediately. I knew he had colleagues who had children at the school. They rushed home to Dunblane but luckily their children were safe. I remember it as if it were yesterday. A truly heinous crime and devastating for all involved, for those of us who lived & worked nearby and for the whole country.

Unbelieving at first at what we were hearing then the janitor quietly going round locking all the doors in the small primary school not too far away from Dunblane.

Then the phones started ringing. Parents in such distress needing to hear their littles ones were safe. An awful day.

I was sitting in my classroom, when the priest rushed in and told me to listen to the news. I wept. It was lunchtime, all the doors were wide open, anyone could walk in off the street.
We quickly had adaptations made, with a new front door, new janitor's office and secure entry and cameras.

I worked in a UK school then. In those days we had next to no security but very quickly we had new high and secure fencing installed with visitors/parents signing in. What a dreadful man to have killed trauma/terrified children.

Dunblane was a great tragedy, I believe gun laws were tightened in the UK following a report.

I often wonder how many parents in the USA have lost their children in similar incidents that seem to happen on a regular basis. I believe that there is some talk of Trump relaxing the gun laws even more.