While taking a stroll down memory lane, Jake Johnson revealed how his mom’s intuition saved him from experiencing a school shooting in 1988.
During a recent appearance on the Dope As Usual podcast, Johnson spoke about how his mother keeping him at home helped him narrowly miss out on the tragic incident at school. “I was sitting next to my mom, I was in fourth grade,” he recalled. “Out of nowhere, my mother turns to me and goes, ‘You’re not going to school tomorrow.’”
Although he had argued with his mom about missing school, Jake Johnson said she refused to let him go. “The next day – May 20, 1988 – a woman walks into my elementary school through the door that my class was in,” he continued. “A woman walked into the school wearing a robe and nothing underneath… The room was empty, she walked through, walked down the hall, walked into another room, shot seven kids, and killed one of them. True story.”
According to ABC7 Chicago, the woman Johnson was referring to was Laurie Dann. She walked into the Hubbard Woods Elementary School in Winnetka, Illinois, and opened fire on a second-grade class. She notably wounded five, not seven, and killed one. Just before shooting the children, she told them she had been there to teach them about guns.
After shooting the children, Dann fled the scene, broke into a nearby home, took another child hostage, and shot him before turning the gun on herself.
Jake Johnson Said He Would Have Quickly Noticed Laurie Dann Walking Into the School Wearing a Robe
While continuing to talk about the tragic situation, Jake Johnson stated he would have more than likely said something had he been at the school and seen Laurie Dann.
“I used to get in a lot of trouble as a kid,” Johnson said. “And I used to always talk so the teacher pushed me in the far right corner so I sat away from the other kids and I was right by the door.”
Jake Johnson said he would have quickly noticed a woman wearing a robe walking into his classroom. He also would have commented on the appearance. “I would have said something,” he said. “I would have tried to show off, I would have tried to get laughs. There’s no question.”
Years after the incident, Jake Johnson said he continued to question his mother about wanting him to stay home that day. “My mom cannot explain why she did not want me to go to school,” he added. “I don’t get it.”