Nashville shooting victim and school headmaster Katherine Koonce was a 'mighty oak tree of a woman' who advocated for students with disabilities, a longtime friend says

• Katherine Koonce was one of six who died in the mass shooting at Nashville's Covenant School Monday.
• Anna Caudill, Koonce's friend of 23 years, spoke to Insider about the school headmaster's legacy.
• Koonce was a 'mighty oak tree of a woman,' Caudill told Insider. 

Katherine Koonce spent so much time advocating for the lives of her students — all while raising two children of her own — that her friend of 23 years, Anna Caudill, said she didn't know when she slept. 

"She was amazing, but she also challenged me to run as hard as I could, to stretch myself and to continue learning and growing, not for anybody else but me," Caudill told Insider of her friend.

Koonce, 60, was one of six who died following the mass shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee on Monday. The other victims were Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney, all 9 years old, Cynthia Peak, 61, and Mike Hill, 61.

Koonce, who was the headmaster at The Covenant School, is survived by her two children and husband. 

Caudill, 50, met Koonce when they both got hired at Christ Presbyterian Academy, near The Covenant School, in August of 2000. For sixteen years, the two worked together — Caudill as an art teacher and Koonce as a learning services director and later an academic dean — and became friends. Koonce left in 2016 to become the headmaster at The Covenant School.

Because Koonce worked at private schools, which do not receive federal funding for disabled students and are not bound by requirements set by the Americans with Disabilities Act, Caudill said she pushed to create a space for students to "thrive and to know themselves better."

"She did something that I hadn't seen anybody do before, which was to be just completely open and frank with students and to educate them about their learning disability or their unique learning needs. And then to give them voice and choice in understanding themselves and being able to advocate for themselves so that they could get their own needs met in classes," Caudill said.

Caudill said that learning from Koonce was a "profound" experience that eventually led her down the path of disability advocacy. She started a nonprofit, Post-adoption Learning Services, in 2016 that advocates for adopted children with disabilities and other needs. Caudill said Koonce was the first person to donate to it.

Koonce's impact was not lost on the students she advocated for, Caudill said. She gave an example of one student, now an adult, who posted a photo of Koonce with her child. That student named her child Katherine, after Koonce.

"It's such a powerful testimony to really a mighty oak tree of a woman, who reaches down deep into the soil and flourishes and whose branches provided for an entire generation of human beings," Caudill said. 

Caudill now says that she wishes her friend's sacrifices to her students, before and during the devastating shooting at The Covenant School, would translate into policy changes, such as restrictions on assault weapons. 

Caudill pointed to Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, who tweeted his prayers following the shooting, and GOP Senator Marsha Blackburn, who did the same.

Lee and Tennessee lawmakers worked to lower the minimum age to carry a gun from 21 to 18. This includes AR-15s. The shooter who killed people at The Covenant School used an assault rifle, according to police. 

"I think of Bill Lee being so bold to do executive orders if he was concerned about library books being risky in schools, or if he was concerned about the books in the teacher's classroom being risky, or if he was concerned about mask mandates impact on anybody," Caudill said."And yet this woman, who has served your children, our children, our community, our families faithfully with her entire self for 23 years, And you can't lift a finger to say, 'my God, we've lost Katherine.'"

"Because somehow that AR-15 is more sacred."