PITTSBURGH Alaska teacher gets Carnegie hero medal

A man from Aliquippa, Pa., also was honored.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- An elementary-school teacher from Alaska who saved a pupil from a knife-wielding attacker was one of 22 people recognized today by the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission.
Jeffrey Carl Harriman, 52, a reading teacher from Palmer, Alaska, says he still isn't used to having the "hero" label applied to him after he helped rescue Stephan Hansell, then 7, at Mountain View Elementary School in Anchorage on May 7, 2001.
On that day, a man carried a filet knife into the school and stabbed or slashed three boys as they stood in line with other children for the school's breakfast program. He then walked down the hall to a classroom and confronted Stephan and about a dozen other pupils.
"Kids were just streaming and pouring into the office, scared to death," Harriman said. "That's when I saw this guy in the school, going down to a classroom."
Harriman followed.
"I just reacted -- something was wrong with our kids. Somebody needed to take care of them and take charge of the situation," Harriman said.
Restraining attacker
The man yanked Stephan from beneath a desk and slashed the boy's throat. Harriman pushed the man down, buying time for the other pupils and another teacher in the room to leave.
"It was a real funny feeling, after I got in the room and I committed myself -- like your hand's caught in the cookie jar," Harriman said. "You know you're in a situation that you have to go through on."
Harriman then picked up a plastic crate that was part of a science kit and stood over the bleeding boy, wielding the crate as a shield, until police arrived and subdued the man with a beanbag-shooting gun.
"He was on a -- I'm not sure what to call it -- some kind of religious quest, and said the only way to save the kids would be to kill them now," said Harriman, a Christian, who tried to reason with the man.
"I told him that I believed in heaven and I believe in God, and he said, 'You're an adult -- it's too late to save you, you've already sinned. The only ones I can save are these kids -- if I can kill them first.' "
In April, 34-year-old Jason Pritchard was sentenced to 99 years in prison for the knife attacks on Stephan, now 8, and three other pupils: 8-year-olds Cody Brown and Billy Moy and his brother, 9-year-old Eric Moy.
Stephan was hospitalized but recovered, and has transferred to another Anchorage public school, Harriman said.
Also honored
Harriman was honored along with Jerry L. Croll, 57, of Aliquippa, Pa., who helped Clairton Police Officer John Dunlap fight off a man who shot the officer seven times in October 2000.
Industrialist Andrew Carnegie started the hero fund in 1904 after being inspired by rescue stories from a mine disaster that killed 181 people.
The awards, bronze medals that come with $3,500 for the honorees or their survivors, are issued five times a year.
Thursday's awards bring to 8,666 the number of people honored since the fund's creation. More than $26.2 million has been given in one-time grants, scholarship aid, death benefits and continuing assistance.