Teacher, police officer honored as heroes for life-saving efforts

Pitt County Schools has honored two of its own for heroism inside and outside of school.

The Board of Education recognized H.B. Sugg Elementary School teacher Marissa Feliciano for her intervention during a house fire in Farmville last month and Wahl-Coates Elementary School Resource Officer Aubrey Pool for his actions to keep students and staff safe when a shooting occurred near the campus last week.

“We have heroes in our schools,” Director of Outreach and Public Relations Beth Ulffers said in introducing the honorees at the March 4 school board meeting. “We know there are heroes every day in our classrooms, but these are literally heroes.”

Feliciano, who has been a second-grade teacher at Sugg since 2022, saw smoke coming from a house on Farmville’s Moye Turnage Road when she was driving home from work Feb. 15. She banged on the door and discovered a grandfather and child were inside.

“He wasn’t coherent about what was going on, so he slammed the door in my face,” Feliciano said. “I knocked on the door again to see if he would answer. He didn’t answer so I ended up kicking down the door. That’s when I saw a little girl coming from the back room and the house was already filled with smoke.”

Feliciano helped to take the child to safety as a bystander arrived to assist the grandfather. The teacher then contacted co-workers to help provide needed clothes, shoes, blankets and other items.

Fire officials said the Feliciano’s actions helped the man and the girl escape without injury.

The recognition for Pool was in honor of his response to a Feb. 28 shooting on East Fifth Street. Pool, a Greenville police officer in his second year as SRO at Wahl-Coates, notified his department after he and school employees heard shots fired shortly before 8:30 a.m., prompting the school to go into lockdown.

East Carolina University researcher Andrew Readyoff, 27, who was walking along East Fifth Street, had been shot and was lying on the sidewalk across from the school’s playground. Savell Hightower, 38, has been arrested and charged in the incident. No one on the Wahl-Coates campus was injured.

“Officer Pool took decisive and swift action to protect the lives of those within our school community,” Principal Tracy Davenport said. “(His) quick thinking, adherence to protocol and calm demeanor played a pivotal role in diffusing a potentially catastrophic situation.

“As one of our kindergarten students said best when talking to his mom about the situation … ‘I was not scared because I knew Officer Pool was going to keep me safe.’”

District 8 representative Melinda Fagundus said the first question parents often ask about a school is, “Did your child always feel safe?” She said the incident underscores the importance of having SRO staff members at every school.

Property naming

Also at Monday’s meeting, members voted unanimously to honor individuals by naming the following school property: Ayden-Grifton High School football press box for Charles Mitchell; Farmville Central High School gymnasium in honor of Mike Terrell and in memory of Hilda Worthington, the FCHS basketball court for Coach Larry Williford and the school’s entry road for Donald Reid.