High school senior raises $97,000 for hero teacher in Noblesville school shooting
NOBLESVILLE, Ind. (WISH) — People from all over the country have raised nearly $100,000 on a GoFundMe page from Noblesville hero teacher Jason Seaman.
The person responsible for the viral account is a student.
Jackson Ramey is a senior set to graduate from Noblesville High School and was in awe of the actions taken by the 29-year-old teacher on Friday, when a gunman entered his seventh-grade science class at Noblesville West Middle School.
The school was set to reopen Wednesday for the first time since the shooting. The final day of classes for the school year will be Friday.
A gunman, who was one of his students, shot another student, 13-year-old Ella Whistler. He shot Seaman while the teacher wrestled the gunman to the ground.
“I deeply care for my students and their well being so that is why I did what I did that day,” he said on Monday, the first time he spoke publicly since the Friday shooting.
Seaman didn’t spend much time talking about taking those three bullets. Instead he focused on others. He spoke about Ella, who is still in the hospital, along with first responders, the community support and then Jackson Ramey.
“A special thank you to Jackson for starting the GoFundMe page,” he said.
Over at Noblesville High School, Ramey heard about the shooting through his girlfriend, whose sister happened to be one class over from Seaman’s.
“If they got through him, who knows what would have happened?” Ramey said.
Ramey, who is 18, knew he had to do something.
“The goal of the GoFundMe was to repay a deed that cannot be repaid,” he said.
It started with a goal of $4,000. By Tuesday night, it was over $94,000. By Wednesday afternoon, that total rose to more than $97,000.
“I can’t really fathom how someone I have not personally met would do such an act of kindness,” said Seaman on Monday about Ramey.
On Monday, Ramey played in the high school baseball sectional championship. He met Jason Seaman for the first time.
“We shook hands, he gave me a hug,” Ramey said. Then Seaman told Ramey why this GoFundMe mattered so much.
“It’s more than the monetary value. It’s about how the community rallied behind something,” Ramey recalled Seaman saying to him.
With national outlets picking up on the GoFundMe page, the money could continue to pour in. Who knows where it will stop.
But, what we do know is that a high school senior and a middle school science teacher who were strangers on Friday are now forever connected.
“I hope he doesn’t have to worry about anything but recovering,” Ramey said.
There is also a GoFundMe page for Ella that had collected more than $52,000 by Tuesday night. That amount had increased to more than $57,000 by Wednesday afternoon.