Heroic kids.

Debbie Shultz, a teacher at Heritage High School in Rockdale County, Georgia, is in the final stages of divorcing Theodore Franklin Shultz, her husband of seven years. She had a restraining order against him, but when he was released from a mental institution on December 13, 2003, she was not notified.

Two days later, one of her Spanish classes had just completed a final exam when Mr. Shultz burst through the door. Clutching a large knife in one hand, he momentarily paused before rushing toward his wife.

Though many of the 16- and 17-year-old students fled from the room screaming, six jumped into the fray--tackling the assailant, pinning him to the floor, wresting the knife from his hand, and holding him until police arrived.

As reported by the December 18 Atlanta Journal-Constitution, first to reach Mr. Shultz were Austin Hutchinson and Scott Wigington. The others who became involved were Nimesh Patel, John Bailey, Andy Anderson and Matt Battaglia.

Mr. Shultz was charged with aggravated assault, aggravated stalking, cruelty to children, disrupting a school and carrying a weapon on school property. Mrs. Shultz required stitches for slash wounds on a hand and a leg, but returned to class the next day. "Those kids are my heroes," she told the Journal-Constitution. "Without them I wouldn't be alive."