DALLAS – Dallas ISD said Tuesday that four students were injured and taken to area hospitals after a shooting at Wilmer-Hutchins High School – exactly one year to the day after students walked out in protest after a student was shot in a classroom.
Wilmer Hutchins High School Shooting
Dallas ISD Assistant Police Chief Christina Smith said a suspect has been identified, but has not been taken into custody as of Tuesday afternoon.
School officials provided no details about the suspect.
What they’re saying:
School officials were reluctant to share many details surrounding the shooting or how a gun was brought into the school.
“We do know that the gun did not come through during regular intake time,” Smith said. “So, it was not a failure of our staff, our protocols or of the machinery that we have.”
Is school canceled?
Dallas ISD Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde said school was canceled at Wilmer-Hutchins for the rest of the week.
“We will have mental health clinicians and others available to assist anyone who would like to meet with counselors to discuss the incident,” Elizalde said.
Elizalde said during a news conference Tuesday that the school had completed reunification between students and parents at the school’s stadium.
Students and parents react
Freshman Salondra Ibanez heard the gunshots from her classroom.
“My teacher, she was going over our work and we heard a gunshot. At first, I was just trying to process it because usually they have like little things they smack in the halls, like they play around. So like, I was processing it and it went off again and it was faster this time. So that’s when me and my classmates, we got up and we went behind the teacher’s desk and I was making sure my classmates were okay and then we went into the storage room and we waited there until we got escorted out,” she said
Several parents spoke to FOX 4 after picking up their children.
“I’m thinking about taking them and putting them in homeschool. I can’t keep going through this as a parent. I’m telling you. It’s very frightening to think about losing your child, your kids. This is terrible,” said Shauna Williams, who has two students at the school.
2024 Wilmer-Hutchins High School Shooting
Tuesday’s shooting comes almost exactly a year since a 17-year-old Wilmer-Hutchins student shot another student inside a classroom.
On April 12, 2024, a student brought a revolver to the school and shot another classmate in the leg.
After the shooting, police said a teacher intervened and made the student leave the classroom. The school was placed on lockdown.
He was found a short time later near the school’s football field. The gun was found in the woods nearby.
The shooting prompted many questions about how the student brought a gun into the school.
Wilmer-Hutchins High School is equipped with metal detectors and has a clear backpack policy.
Related
Students are expected to return to Wilmer Hutchins High School in Dallas on Monday after a student was shot in a classroom on Friday.
District officials a few weeks later said the student’s bag wasn’t properly checked by staff.
The Source: Information on the shooting at Wilmer-Hutchins High School comes from a news conference from Dallas ISD officials. Interviews with students and parents comes from FOX 4 reporters at the scene. Backstory about the 2024 shooting comes from previous FOX4 reporting.
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