Muslim Teenager Saves Classmates

The video accompanying the article shows an act of courage. Duaa Ahmad, a student at Oshkosh West High School in Wisconsin, rushes to enter the security code to Ahmadiyya Muslim Community’s Oshkosh chapter mosque. After keying in the security code, she holds the door open and ushers in her classmates before entering the building herself.

Ahmad was with her AP English literature class when they heard a gunshot. After her teacher advised that they should leave the classroom, one of Ahmad’s classmates recommended going to the mosque. She said, "A guy yelled, 'go, go to the mosque' and that's where everybody seemed to be going anyway, so I just tried to lock as many people in as I could.” About one hundred students were able to shelter safely inside the mosque.

Ahmad’s father, Saad Ahmad, works as financial secretary at the mosque. When he heard about his daughter’s heroic act, he said, "I'm really glad she opened the mosque right away and took the initiative. I was quite proud of her that she was able to handle this situation at such a young age."

The Oshkosh Ahmadiyya Muslims Facebook group posted about the incident, saying, “Ahmadiyya Muslim Community’s Oshkosh Chapter is a close neighbor to the Oshkosh West High school that fell victim to a violent incident on December 3, 2019.  Six students in Oshkosh West are children of this community. One of the members and student at Oshkosh West opened the Mosque Doors immediately to accommodate the students and provide a quick warm shelter and refreshments. Such violence has no place in our schools.  Yet the quick response of Oshkosh Police Department and related agencies showed the vigilance in managing such situation.  Furthermore, the School Administration managed the situation in the most professional manner possible. As concerned citizens and close neighbors, Ahmadiyya Muslim Community offers any and all services to Oshkosh School System and the City. Our doors are always open.”

While Ahmad’s actions demonstrated extreme bravery, since she and others believed that a school shooting was taking place, the title of the CNN article is misleading. An updated version of the article, as well as articles by ABC and Fox News, say that a student stabbed a resource officer with an “edged weapon.” The officer then shot the student. Both student and officer were hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries.

Ahmad did protect nearly 100 students with her quick thinking and bravery. However, since the only person who shot anyone was the resource officer and he did so in self defense, it is misleading to say that the video shows a teenager saving her classmates from a school shooting.