Oxford High student describes huddling in classroom during school shooting: 'I thought I was safe at school'

• A student at a Michigan high school where a deadly shooting unfolded described huddling inside of a classroom.
• "Everyone was freaking out," 16-year-old Oxford High School student Josephine Stoffan told Insider.

A student at the Michigan high school where four students were shot and killed and seven others wounded on Tuesday described scenes of chaos during the attack as she huddled inside a locked classroom with fellow students.

Josephine Stoffan, 16, a junior at Oxford High School in Oakland County, told Insider that she was walking in the hallway with her boyfriend on her way to English class on Tuesday afternoon when the pandemonium erupted.

"All of a sudden, I see 50 people just like running down the hallway, like stumbling over each other, screaming," Stoffan recalled Wednesday. "And there were a bunch of teachers in the hallway and they were like, 'why are you guys running, what's going on?' and they just start screaming 'shooter, shooter, shooter!'"

Stoffan said she then quickly found herself inside of a freshman classroom where "everyone was freaking out."

The teacher inside "immediately sprung into action," said Stoffan, explaining that the educator ordered students to "get in the corner" and then she "shut off the lights, put the blinds down" and enacted a door-lock system that every door in the school is equipped with for emergency situations.

"I am so thankful for that," Stoffan said of the door-stopper system called Nightlock.

Stoffan said that she did not hear any gunshots or witness the deadly shooting, but described how terrifying it was being barricaded inside the classroom.

"I was freaking out," she said, noting that the teacher "handed out hardcover books, I guess, to throw if something would happen."

Stoffan said she nervously texted her parents and later discovered that her younger brother happened to be in the same classroom huddled next to her.

"We sat there for 40 minutes, but it felt like 10 minutes — we were all panicking," she said.

Once police finally escorted everyone out of the school, Stoffan said she felt "such a weird feeling."

"It felt liberating and free and also terrifying like I knew I was safe," she said. "I was trying not to cry."

Stoffan said she was shocked a shooting unfolded at her school.

"I thought I was safe at school," she said. "All the doors are usually locked and you have to be buzzed into school, so I thought there's no way."

She explained that Oxford High School handled the situation "well" and that she was "grateful" for all the school-shooter drills and other emergency preparations.

"They really prepared us and if we didn't have these drills I don't think it would have turned out the same way," she said.

Authorities identified the slain victims as Tate Myre, 16, Hana St. Juliana, 14, Madisyn Baldwin, 17, and Justin Shilling, 17.

Stoffan said she knew some of the victims, including Shilling who she joked around with an hour before the tragedy.

"I was joking with him at lunch," Stoffan said of Shilling. "He had a big smile on his face and an hour later…it's crazy."