A high school freshman allegedly fired shots from a handgun inside a first-hour class at Normal Community High School Friday, the Bloomington Pantagraph has reported. Although shots were fired at the ceiling, no one was injured in the incident.
Students described the scene in the school’s classrooms after the shooting as “nerve-racking” and “freaky” and said police officers were “armed with big guns.”
They were shaken from the experience even several hours later, the Pantagraph reported.
The alleged shooter has been charged as a juvenile, so his name will not be released. The 14-year-old faces 16 counts, some of them felonies that could put him in detention until his 21st birthday.
The teacher in the classroom is being described as a hero for getting the gun away from the shooter. One parent was quoted as crediting Derrick Schonauer, the teacher, with saving the lives of his daughter “and about 28 others in that room. I don’t know what he saw or when he saw it, but when he found the opportunity, he took action and I am so grateful to know that he would put himself on the line like that to save those kids. He’s a first-year teacher and this is his 12th day on the job. In my eyes, he ranks up there with those passengers on Flight 93 on 9/11. He’s a hero.”
The school was immediately put on lockdown, with announcements of “Code Red” coming over the public address speakers and into every classroom, and students were escorted out of the buildinig over the course of the day to a nearby church where parents could pick them up.
One student in a first-hour Spanish class said she heard the “Code Red” over the intercom, which caused the Spanish teacher to turn off the lights and gather students in a corner. “We saw police officers check inside with flashlights and one walked by with an assault rifle,” the student said.
What would you do?
We recently reported on another school shooting, this one in Baltimore County, in which a student was critically injured. In that shooting, a teacher near the shooter was also credited with getting the gun away and keeping students safe.
Not even a month into the school year, and two shootings, with two teachers serving as heroes. This unlawful activity is making teachers everywhere think about what they would do if one of their students pulled out a gun in class or elsewhere on school property while other students were present.
Furthermore, an additional gun incident yesterday involving a 13-year-old at Stemmers Run Middle School in Baltimore County who pulled a gun on teachers and students resulted in a teacher wrestling the gun away before any shots were fired, according to a story in today’s Baltimore Sun.
That brings us to a total of three incidents in two weeks in two states, where students brought a gun to school and threatened teachers and students. Two of those incidents resulted in shots being fired, one resulted in life-threatening injuries, and all three involved teachers who physically got control of the shooter and prevented the situation from getting worse.
Normal Community superintendent Gary Niehaus said, understandably, that this is one thing no superintendent ever wants to have happen in one of his schools, but experts point out that people on the scene, including teachers, have options other than locking everyone in a classroom.
“I would prefer that my children get out of the building and away from danger,” the Pantagraph quoted one parent as saying. Indeed, that’s what students at Stemmers Run Middle School did: they ran out of the classroom as their eighth-grade teacher grappled with the student holding the gun.
Parents, please keep your guns away from kids
Unit 5 schools have promised to increase security, the Pantagraph reported, and Baltimore County school officials have also made promises of enhanced security after this second gun incident in two weeks. They are also trying to get the message to parents to secure their firearms properly in their houses.
