Heroic Minneapolis middle schoolers prevented a “significantly worse” tragedy during Wednesday’s mass shooting as they shielded their younger peers because of the school’s “buddy system.”

Officials at Annunciation Catholic School have long paired older students with younger kids during the annual back-to-school Mass so the lower grades learn how to behave in church.

“So for instance, seventh graders get, say, a third and a first grader, and they walk to church, school Mass, with each buddy [holding] a hand, and they sit next to them in church, teach them how to do church,” Michael Burt, a father whose five kids attend the school, told NPR on Thursday.

Students were captured on video running out of the church, as older students rushed the children out the doors, according to video recorded by a parent and obtained by NBC News.

The students, varying in age, were visibly upset, some crying, as they escaped the church and ran for safety.

Gunman Robin Westman killed two students and wounded 18 others, including 15 schoolchildren between the ages of 6 and 15, during his rampage.

The two young students who were killed were identified Thursday as 8-year-old Fletcher Merkel and 10-year-old Harper Moyski.

Burt commended the quick-thinking actions of the students to protect their peers when Westman launched his attack and opened fire outside the church.

“The first action by those middle schoolers was to push their buddies down under the pew,” Burt said. “Which is why the middle schoolers were the ones who were standing the longest and were largely the injured, acting in heroism … and then covering the little ones under the pews.”

School principal Matthew DeBoer praised the older students’ actions, alongside the teachers who were in the nave when the terrifying scene unfolded.

“Adults were protecting children, older children were protecting younger children,” DeBoer told the outlet. “It could have been significantly worse without their heroic actions.”

Marty Scheerer, chief of Hennepin Emergency Medical Services, said one kid was struck in the back by a “shotgun blast” while protecting another student.

Westman, who identified as transgender, was found dead by a self-inflicted gunshot after the shooting.

The deranged 23-year-old targeted the school he was a graduate of and where his mother, Mary Grace Westman, worked as a parish secretary.

The elder Westman is not cooperating with police in the investigation and has hired a criminal defense attorney, police and Fox News reported Thursday night.

“She is completely distraught about the situation and has no culpability but is seeking an attorney to deal with calls like this,” attorney Ryan Garry told the outlet.

Here's what we know about the Catholic school shooting in Minneapolis

• Students had begun their first week of school at the Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, Minnesota, two days before the shooting.
• Robin Westman, a 23-year-old trans woman, opened fire through the stained glass windows on Wednesday morning during a celebratory back-to-school Mass filled with children.
• The shooting killed two children and injured at least 18 others, before Westman died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
• Westman had written “Kill Donald Trump” and “for the children” on gun magazines, and posted videos of a handwritten manifesto.
• Westman’s mother had worked at the school.

Mary Grace signed Robin’s legal name change in 2020 —  from Robert to Robin — in apparent support of his gender-identity change.

In a manifesto, a recording of which was posted to YouTube, Robin lamented that he had “brainwashed” themself into being trans.

“I only keep [the long hair] because it is pretty much my last shred of being trans. I’m tired of being trans, I wish I never brain-washed myself,” he wrote, according to a translation of the document conducted by The Post.