It’s 2011, I’m a junior at Gardena High School in Gardena, CA.

It was around 10 a.m. and I thought it was a normal day. I was tired of my dull third period science class, so I decide to take a trip to the bathroom to have a change of pace.

I get to the bathroom, get on my phone and started to goof off like any other high school student would, just minding my own business.

As I was walking back to my class.

Bang.

All of a sudden I hear a gunshot in a classroom 50 feet away and the only thing on my mind is, “Oh God.”

So I run back into the bathroom and for the next couple of hours I was stuck in there while there was a school shooter at large.

I was terrified.

On Jan. 18, 2011 a young man brought a gun to school but the gun accidentally went off when he slammed his backpack onto the desk, resulting in one person getting shot through the neck and the other getting hit in the head by the stray bullet.

He was being bullied by some gangsters at school and had enough of it.

Our restroom stalls were extremely dirty and small, as it looked like it’s never been cleaned. The seats were filled with dirty toilet paper and pee.

It was gross, but I was so scared that I ended up cleaning it up and sitting on top of the toilet in case he came in to the bathroom.

After a couple of hours, the vice principal at the time made an announcement on the intercom saying that the gunman had been apprehended, however students should be careful as the police were still roaming the campus.

I ran back to my class, scared out of my mind. I got scolded pretty badly by my teacher but he saw how terrified I was, so I was let off with a “please be careful.”

After school ended, tons of police were patrolling and news outlets were outside the school gates, asking students how they initially felt about the encounter.

They asked me a bunch of questions, but I was too scared to really say anything.

I was just glad that I got to live another day.