On March 27, 2023, a school morning at The Covenant School in Nashville ended in a mass shooting that killed six people, including 60-year-old Katherine Anne Koonce, the school’s head. Reports say Koonce was on a Zoom call when gunfire began; she ended the call and moved toward the danger, and friends and colleagues believe she confronted the shooter while trying to protect the children.

The assailant, identified as 28-year-old Audrey Hale, a former student, entered through a side entrance after shooting through it and was armed with multiple legally purchased firearms. The attack also killed two other adults, Cynthia Peak, 61, and Mike Hill, 61, and three nine-year-old students, Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney. Police officers shot and killed the attacker at the scene.

Investigators later found maps of the school and writings the authorities described as a manifesto; those materials reportedly linked the attack to hatred of the Christian school. Koonce is remembered in accounts as an educator of strong faith who acted to protect her students.