Kelly McManis-Panasuk is a teacher at Forest High School in Ocala, Florida.

During the 2018 Forest High School Shooting she helped stop the suspected shooter, Sky Bouche by talking to him until police arrived.

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Kelly McManis-Panasuk has a Bachelor of Science in Business Management.

^[1]She also has a teaching certificate in business education.

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Kelly McManis-Panasuk teaches courses at Forest High School in digital information technology, e-commerce and entrepreneurship.

^[0]She first started teaching at the school in 2008.

In 2009 she also became the Advisor of FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America) nurturing students to become future business leaders.

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Prior to becoming a teacher, McManis Panasuk spent 13 years working in a management role at direct mail marketing advertising company.

The company specialized in print production of cooperative mail, a consumer product.

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On Friday, April 20, 2018 Kelly McManis-Panasuk helped stop the 2018 Forest High School Shooting by talking to the suspected shooter, Sky Bouche until police arrived.

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At the time of the shooting, McManis-Panasuk was taking attendance in her Forest High School homeroom at about 8:39 a.m. when she heard what sounded like a large metal garbage can being smashed in the hallway just outside.

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McManis-Panasuk walked to the door of the classroom, located in the main building’s second floor, D hallway.

Then she saw a hysterical female running down the hallway, screaming about gunshots.

The teacher let the girl inside and looked back out.

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Then she saw the suspected shooter, Sky Bouche, one of her former students.

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″‘His hands were up and he said he wanted to be arrested... I am mentally ill,’” the teacher said of her conversation with the man accused in Friday’s school shooting.

“I asked: ‘Did you shoot a gun ?’ He said he did shoot a gun.”

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After McManis-Panasuk, heard his response, she yelled: “Where?”^[0]

“I shot a door,” the teacher recalled Bouche telling her.

“He said: ’I didn’t think it (the gun) would work.”

The gunshot had gone through the door and injured a 17-year-old student, hitting the boy’s ankle.

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The teacher said Bouche “said he had been abused by his family his whole life and he was done.”

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“He wanted to be arrested,” McManis-Panasuk said.

“I really don’t think he meant to shoot the gun.

I think it really was an accident.

He just wanted someone to listen to him.”

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In her room, the teacher told Bouche, who had previously dropped the gun in the hallway, to remain still.

She pressed the emergency call button at her desk, but it did not seem to work.

So she called the front office and told them she had an active shooter situation.

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As soon as school resource officer, Jimmy Long, and Principal Brent Carson received the call they began running to the room.

They arrived about three minutes later.

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McManis-Panasuk said Bouche kept still while they waited for the officer and principal to arrive.

At one point, Bouche told her he was going to remove items from his pocket.

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“I am not going to hurt anyone,” Bouche said, according to the teacher.

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Bouche, who had on a hunting-style vest, slowly reached inside a pocket and pulled out shotgun shells and a folding knife.

He placed them all on a table.

A few minutes later, Long arrived and handcuffed Bouche.

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McManis-Panasuk said Bouche was a high school dropout.

She described him as a poor student, who “did not attend school much, and when he did, he struggled.”

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The teacher said she doesn’t want people to think that she is trying to get attention.

She said her only role was giving Bouche a listening ear.

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“I am no hero,” she said.

“I was just a good listener, that’s all.”

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