https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCHhOMZZlpY

Keanon Lowe should become the embodiment of compassion and courage all rolled up in one extraordinary human being.

The video I have included with this blog post was recorded at Parkrose High School, in Portland, Ore. I graduated from Parkrose High School in 1967, which gives this story a significant bit of special poignance for me.

Keanon Lowe is a football coach at the high school and he is the gentleman who took a loaded shotgun out of the hands of a student. What he did next has captured the nation’s collective heart. He grabbed the student and embraced him. He hugged him tightly until the police arrived to take the student into custody.

I have never seen anything quite like this. I am guessing none of us ever has seen an educator demonstrate the presence of mind that Lowe did in that moment, preventing a potentially devastating tragedy.

Lowe once played football for the University of Oregon. The Parkrose School District hired him after he graduated from the U of O. So help me, I cannot fathom how this man summoned the instinct to do what he did.

As for the student, he is serving a three-year probation sentence. I pray the young man gets the help he needs so desperately.

The educator, Keanon Lowe? He is a hero in every sense of the word.