2023 in review: How actress Melissa Joan Hart saved lives during the Nashville shooting

Melissa Joan Hart was a heroine and a reference of the late twentieth century and early twenty-first century, thanks to 'Sabrina, the Teenage Witch'. More than two decades later, in 2023, the actress emerged as a real-life hero. She helped save lives in the March 2023 shooting in Nashville, Tennessee.

It happened on March 27,2023 at Nashville's Covenant Elementary School, where a 28-year-old shooter killed three adults and three 9-year-olds before being killed by police.

As a coincidence of fate, Melissa Joan Hart and her husband, Mark Wilkerson, were near the area. Their children go to school near the center where the assault took place.

Melissa Joan Hart and Mark Wilkerson, along with teachers from the school, helped to evacuate children from the center and get them as far away from danger as possible.

It was the actress herself who recounted the events with an intense and emotional video on her Instagram account.

Photo: @melissajoanhart / Instagram

"My kids go to school right next to a school where there was a shooting today," she began her story. Melissa Joan Hart was visibly affected by what had happened.

Melissa explained that she and her husband were on the way to a conference at their kids' school, which is nearby when the event occurred.

As they passed the Covenant School, the shooting happened to be taking place, and the couple saw a teacher emerge from a grove of trees with several children, attempting to cross a five-lane highway.

They both got out of the car quickly. "We helped a class of kindergartners across a busy highway that were climbing out of the woods, that were trying to escape the shooter situation at their school," recalls the actress.

"We helped all these tiny little … kids cross the road and get their teachers over there, and we helped a mom reunite with her children," she says.

A sad part about Melissa Joan Hart's story is that it's not the first time she and her husband experienced a school shooting up close.

In 2012, the actress lived in Connecticut, where her children went to a school near Sandy Hook. The primary school of Sandy Hook would suffer an incredible blow when a 20-year-old man entered the building and killed 20 children and 6 adults.

"This is our second experience with a school shooting, with our kids being in close proximity," the actress said in the video. Tears poured from her eyes. "I just don’t know what to say anymore. It is just, enough is enough."

Days after the shooting, Melissa Joan Hart used her podcast, 'What Women Binge,' to talk about the terrible incident with a calmer voice. The episode was titled 'Nashville Mourning'.

"It was just… the worst thing I've ever seen," she said, "and I'm not even a first responder. I didn't even see what they had to see, what those teachers saw, what those children saw. So it was just a really hard day. And it's only gonna get worse for some around here, families that have to grieve and process."

The losses might have been greater if Melissa and her husband had not set out to help the children. It wasn't about magic or witchcraft; it was heroism.

Photo: @melissajoanhart / Instagram