Jeremy Seaman, the older brother of Jason Seaman, the teacher who intervened in Friday morning’s school shooting at Noblesville West Middle School, said his brother was shot three times and was undergoing surgery Friday.
Students and parents told IndyStar that Seaman intervened to help stop the shooter.
Jeremy Seaman said he wasn’t surprised his brother, a former defensive end for Southern Illinois University, put his own safety at risk on behalf of his students.
“It’s not surprising, to be honest,” he said of his brother’s intervention in the shooting. “He’s not really ever been the person to run away. When the safety of the kids is at hand, it’s not surprising to me that he was going to do what he had to do.”
A woman who identified herself as Seaman's mother posted on Facebook that her son was shot three times and was in surgery.
"Please pray for my son," she said in the social media post. "We are told he is in good condition but haven't gotten to see him yet. I thank God that no one was killed."
Jeremy Seaman said he didn’t have details about his brother’s medical condition, but that he was conscious after the shooting.
“When he was taken to the hospital, I know he was talking,” Jeremy Seaman said. “He talked to his wife. He told her he was OK.”
Jeremy Seaman said his brother was three-sport high school athlete in Mahomet, Illinois. He tore his ACL playing basketball in his junior year, but after several surgeries he was back on the football field in August, his brother said.
“He’s familiar with struggle and adversity,” his brother, who now lives in Arizona, said.
Nick Hill, current head football coach at SIU and a former teammate of Seaman's, tweeted Friday that Seaman is a hero.
"He was a great teammate, one of the team's hardest workers," Hill said in another tweet from the team's Twitter account. "You could always trust him to do the right thing.”
Lindsey Hall, who was Seaman’s middle-school principal before becoming superintendent of the Mahomet-Seymour school district, said it was unsurprising that Seaman "rose to the occasion" Friday morning.
“It’s no surprise that Jason would put forth heroic efforts,” she said. “He’s been a person of character and integrity his whole life."
Seaman has been a science teacher for Noblesville schools for nearly four years, according to his LinkedIn profile. He also has been a football coach for seventh-graders for two years.
Jeremy Seaman said his brother was married and had two young children — a toddler son and a one-month-old daughter.
Jeremie Lovall said his daughter, a seventh-grader in the school, was in the classroom when the shooting started. She called her dad, who lives in Kokomo, to tell him she was OK.
“She kept saying, ‘I saw my teacher get shot,’” Lovall said. Her daughter was in Seaman’s class.
Jacob Long, an eighth-grader, described a chaotic scene in his medical detectives class with students crying and teachers taking off their belts to lash doors closed.
“I didn’t cry,” he said, “but a lot of people were crying.”
Long said he didn’t know the students involved, but knew Seaman well. He played football and ran track for him.
“He’s a good coach and a good teacher,” Long said, “an all-around good guy.”
Mac Lynas is a seventh-grader who played football this year for Seaman.
“He’s a good coach,” Lynas said, “a good person.”
“He cares about the kids,” said Janna Lynas, Mac’s mom. “More than just developing football players, he wants to develop kids into young men.”
Steve Vedder, who lives across the street from Seaman, said the teacher moved into the Noblesville home in November.
"He's a hero in my mind," Vedder said.
Vedder said when he heard on the news that the injured teacher was a seventh-grade science teacher, "I knew it had to be him."
"You see it on the news, you just don't think about it happening in your backyard," Vedder said.
"Our prayers are with him and his family."
