Jenna Bush Hager tears up while discussing Nashville school shooting

Jenna Bush Hager was close to tears as she discussed this week’s mass shooting at a private Christian school in Nashville, saying she doesn’t understand how people are worried about kids reading Judy Blume books when they’re not safe in class. 

The Today with Hoda & Jenna host, 41, reflected on the tragedy with her co-star Hoda Kotb on Tuesday, the day after an armed former student opened fire inside The Covenant School, shooting and killing three adults and three children. 

‘This is one of those mornings that you begin with a heavy heart. You and I have jobs that we do. We are journalists. We interview people, but I think there are certain times where you’re like, you know, for a minute I just want to take my journalism cap off and be a mother,’ Kotb, 58, said. 

‘And be a human,’ Bush Hager agreed. 

Bush Hager told her co-host Hoda Kotb that she has a friend in Nashville and ‘knew of one of the girls who was nine who went to school yesterday and who didn’t get to come home’

Kotb, who is mom to daughters Haley, six, and Hope, three, shared how she believes ‘a lot of people have become desensitized’ to mass shootings.  

‘If it’s not in your town, you go, “Oh what happened? Where? How many people? Oh,”‘ she explained. 

Bush Hager shared that has a friend in Nashville and ‘knew of one of the girls who was nine who went to school yesterday and who didn’t get to come home.’

The mother of three has three children — Mila, nine, Poppy, seven, and Hal, three — with her husband Henry Hager.  

‘So when Henry came home from work, I said, “God, did you see this?” she recounted. 

‘And I had to whisper because I have a nine-year-old who was doing her homework, and the thought that any of us could send our children on the buses or walking or drop them off at carpool and not get to hug them again is just beyond,’ she went on, choking up. 

Bush Hager also touched upon the increasing number of book bans in libraries and schools across the U.S. 

Bush Hager has three children –  Mila, nine, Poppy, seven, and Hal, three –  with her husband Henry Hager

Children from The Covenant School are pictures holding hands as they are taking to a reunification site after the deadly shooting at their school on Monday 

‘As a book lover, I just have to say, and my mom has said this as a librarian, we are worried about giving our kids Judy Blume and other books that are important to the history, to the fabric of our country, and we aren’t worried about sending our kids to schools where they’re not safe?’ she asked. 

‘I just don’t understand what has happened to a country that I know you love, that I love,’ she told Kotb. 

Bush Hager added that so much has changed since she was a teacher, which was ‘not that long ago.’ 

‘It was what 15 years ago max? We did not do [active-shooter] drills. I was not scared, and I taught in the most marginalized areas in this country. I was not scared going to school.’ 

Kotb said she couldn’t stop thinking of the parents trying to find their children at the school, recalling how she witnessed a panicked mother looking for her four-year-old son George when she was on vacation last week. 

Bush Hager shared her outrage that we as a country ‘are worried about giving our kids Judy Blume’ but ‘aren’t worried about sending our kids to schools where they’re not safe’

Bush Hager noted that when she was a former teacher 15 or so years ago, she was never scared and never had to do active-shooter drills 

‘I just don’t understand what has happened to a country that I know you love, that I love,’ she told Kotb

‘You know the feeling. It’s like you don’t see your kid for three minutes. You’re like, “What happened?” She ended up finding George all fine. But what I was thinking was as those parents were rolling up to that school, it’s like, “Where’s my kid?”‘ she said. 

‘We’ve all had the fear for a minute of losing sight and how you think that’s the last moment, and to imagine those parents lined up going into that school, thinking like, “Is my child going to run to me?” 

‘There were mothers banging on buses screaming their kids’ names.’

Kotb said she won’t let her children cross the street without holding her hand, explaining how she was afraid that her daughter was going to cut herself the other day. 

‘That’s how we are with our children. We’re protective,’ she explained. 

‘But we can’t protect them at the place where… they should be the safest,’ Bush Hager said. 

Kotb said she couldn’t stop thinking of the parents trying to find their children at the school, recalling how she witnessed a panicked mother looking for her son on vacation last week  

Kotb, who is mom to daughters Haley, six, and Hope, three, believes ‘a lot of people have become desensitized’ to mass shootings

Police identified Audrey Hale, 28, as the shooter who opened fire in The Covenant School shortly before 10:13 a.m. on Monday while armed with two rifles and a handgun. 

The former student shot and killed six people, including three children, Hallie Scruggs, William Kenney, and Evelyn Dieckhaus, all nine. 

The shooter also murdered head of school Dr. Katherine Koonce, 60, substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, 61, and school custodian Mike Hill, 61.

Responding officers shot and killed Hale at 10:27 a.m. 

Authorities initially used the pronouns ‘she’ and ‘her’ to refer to Hale, who was transgender and also went by Aiden, but the shooter’s preferred pronouns were he/him, according to a LinkedIn page.