They escorted her outside, where a few students and parents still milled about in the early evening.
But Professor Manning wasn't there and the other students were milling around talking to one another as they awaited him.
Still, as the students milled around in the stifling night air heavy with the fumes of tear gas, most seemed dazed by the sudden eruption of violence.
In the parking lot, students and former Columbine students milled around outside an area cordoned off by crime-scene tapes.
The students cried out and milled like sheep.
As I left the building, classes were changing and the students were milling about in the halls.
Fifteen other students from the United States and Europe milled about the lime-green room, adhering to the standard traveler's dialogue while waiting to meet their teachers.
Many students milled outside the three-story, red-brick building, some crying, others holding prayer vigils in a nearby park.
The 22 staff inside stayed at their desks while the students milled around after first closing the doors.
The arriving students were milling about, some roaming at random, some in clusters, but as I approached, there seemed to be a distinct clearing around the palmetto.