In a cabinet in principal Joel Myrick’s office sits an overstuffed, expandable folder.

He pulled it out and put it on his desk in his hard-wood, blue-walled office inside Gulfport High School. “The Pearl File” holds the harsh memories of a day seven years ago, a day that changed his life forever.

“The way I think about school was forged at that moment,” said Myrick, who this year replaced Lester Denley as principal of Gulfport High School. “That day formed who I am as a principal.”

In some ways, today was an average day. He began with a hot cup of coffee, checked mail, signed papers, and made important phone calls. Today, however, his phone calls included his annual call to Pearl High School.

On Oct. 1 seven years ago, Luke Woodham, then 16, beat and stabbed his mother to death. Then, armed with a hunting rifle, he came to Pearl High School, where Mr. Myrick was assistant principal.

Woodham opened fire on students in the commons. When

Mr. Myrick heard the gunshots, he retrieved his own Colt .45 pistol from his truck in the parking lot.

Before trying to leave, Woodham killed two girls and wounded seven other students. As Woodham drove away from school, Mr. Myrick aimed his gun at the student’s vehicle.

The teenager, who was driving toward Mr. Myrick, finally came to a stop. Mr. Myrick approached the car, told Woodham to get out, and held Woodham down until the police arrived.

“That really changed the way I was,” said the South Carolina native and retired major in the Army National Guard.

Today, on the anniversary of the shootings, he relived the moment as he searched through the Pearl File: letters, supportive and critical, pictures, including photos of the two dead victims, newspaper and magazine clippings, poems by others about the events of that day.

Everyday at Gulfport High, Mr. Myrick assists teens that have no idea that several years ago a nation argued about whether what he did that day was heroic or illegal.

Some hate mail in the Pearl File said he shouldn’t have had a weapon on school property and, even worse, should not have aimed the gun at a student.

Others, however, defended Mr. Myrick, quoting the law that his vehicle was an extension of his home, making possession of the gun justifiable.

“Some wanted me to become president,” he said.

Later today, two police officers came into Mr. Myrick’s office to discuss clothing and gangs, yet another reminder of Woodham, a member of a cult called “The Kroth,” whose members helped plan the massacre.

“Violence, any violence, is repugnant to me,” he said.

Every morning Mr. Myrick walks among students mingling in the courtyard, not unlike Pearl High School’s “Commons” the morning of the attack.

“I am very conscious of the climate of the school,” he said. “I wasn’t before.”