IE Business Daily Business news for the Inland Empire.
A music teacher who protected her students in a barricaded classroom during last November’s school shooting in Santa Clarita was recognized Tuesday by one of the Inland Empire’s largest manufacturing companies.
Kaitlin Holt, an instructor at Saugus High School, received the Civilian Hero Award from Maglite in Ontario, the first given out by the company this year.
Holt had been teaching for less than a year at the time of the shooting, which left two people dead and five wounded. Holt treated one of the wounded students while waiting for police to arrive, almost certainly saving the child’s life.
“We were really prepared,” said Holt, who said a training class she took with American Tactical Defense in Fullerton taught her what do, and how to act, during the shooting. “We knew exactly what to do.”
People like Holt should receive more public recognition than then usually do, said Anthony Maglica, founder and chief executive officer of Maglite.
“We spend too much time focusing on the perpetrators of these awful crimes,” said Maglica, who presented the award to Holt during a ceremony at Maglite’s headquarters. “We need to spend more time on the heroes who rise to the occasion.”
Maglite manufactures and distribute high-end flashlights used by law enforcement and the military.
