Shooting hits home for Tyler teacher who attended Uvalde’s Robb Elementary

TYLER, Texas (KLTV) - The news of this week’s school shooting in Uvalde hit close to home for a Tyler teacher who attended the school where the massacre happened.

Long before teaching kids physical education at Tyler ISD’s Hazel Owens Elementary School, Holly Drain was a student herself at Robb Elementary School.

“I moved there at the end of my second grade year,” Drain said. “And was there all the way through my junior year in high school.”

Drain was at work when she learned of the shooting by way of text messages from her father.

“He was trying to confirm with me, ‘Holly, isn’t that where you were? Where you went to school?” And I was writing him back saying, ‘yes.’ But we didn’t know if it was inside the school or outside the school. We were getting mixed reports.”

Those mixed reports would eventually turn into news of a rising death toll and a community full of broken hearts.

“I know the people in Uvalde will surround those people and those families. I’m hoping they can get through day-by-day and breathe. Because I know I can barely breathe and it’s not my child, but I feel like they’re a part of me.”

A part of Drain’s life that she is always thankful for, but especially after this week’s tragedy. She relayed that gratitude to her father in a phone call after the shooting happened.

“I told him I’m so glad that we lived there and that I had the opportunity to grow up in a city that was so supportive of what I did. And everybody was there for me. And I want to be there for them.”

LINK: Ways to help Uvalde victims

The Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District created a bank account at First State Bank of Uvalde where people can send funds directly to shooting victims and their families. Funds can be sent electronically through Zelle using the email robbschoolmemorialfund@gmail.com or through the mail at the address 200 East Nopal St., Uvalde, Texas 78801. Make checks payable to the “Robb School Memorial Fund.”

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