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SC teacher struck by lightning during field trip

"We said we're gonna call her 'Sparky,'" said the school's principal. "I did tell her that if they stopped anywhere, she needed to buy a lottery ticket."

LANCASTER COUNTY, S.C. -- A ropes course high in the South Carolina trees seemed like the perfect spot for a field trip for Kristina Heaton and her middle school students.

That is until the lightning struck.

Heaton is a teacher at Buford Middle School in Lancaster County. She and about 40 students plus other faculty went on a three-day field trip to the Greenville YMCA on Friday afternoon.

The students and faculty divided into three activity groups, said principal Sheri Wells.

Heaton and her group of students went to the ropes course.

Wells said despite a forecast for spotty showers, things looked fine.

"It did look dark but not worryingly dark," Wells said. "We had not had any thunder. We had no rain."

Just as the last student was crossing the course, they heard a sound that made them scream.

"We heard this huge burst of thunder," Wells said. "The ground shook."

Heaton was bringing up the rear of the group of students on the ropes. Witnesses say they saw a flash of blue light right where Heaton was climbing. The strike threw Heaton from the cable, Wells says, leaving her dangling midair.

The staff immediately realized what happened.

Once they got Heaton down, they saw burns crawling across her skin on her arm.

"Our children, we didn't even have to say a word to them, they formed a prayer circle and they started praying," Wells said.

Heaton was taken to an area hospital and then flown to the Augusta Burn Center.

Wells said doctors ran tests and determined the lightning strike did not appear to cause any significant internal damage. They kept her for observation and released her late Saturday evening, in time for her to be home on Sunday for Mother's Day.

Amazingly, Wells said, Heaton returned to school on Monday morning. The in-school suspension teacher quickly quipped that she could handle the pain of the lightning strike but wasn't quite ready to handle 500 students and returned home to rest.

"We said we're gonna call her 'Sparky,'" Wells said with a relieved chuckle. "I did tell her that if they stopped anywhere she needed to buy a lottery ticket."

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