Police took a teacher into custody on Wednesday after responding to reports of gunfire at a high school in Dalton, Georgia.
Feb 28 (Reuters) – A high school teacher in Georgia who barricaded himself inside a classroom on Wednesday with students locked out in the hallway was arrested after the principal tried to force open the door and the instructor fired a gunshot, police said.
No students were hurt, except for a girl who suffered a minor ankle injury while running in the pandemonium that followed from the lunchtime incident at Dalton High School in Dalton, Georgia, about 90 miles (145 km) north of Atlanta, the state capital, police said.
After responding to reports of gunfire at the school, police said they found the teacher holed up inside a classroom.
Dalton Police Department spokesman Bruce Frazier told reporters later that the incident began when a group of students tried to enter the classroom, but were prevented from doing so by the teacher, who forced the door shut.
When the principal arrived and tried opening the door with a key, a single gunshot was heard from inside the room, prompting a security lockdown of the school and police were notified, Frazier said.
Frazier declined to say whether he believed the incident stemmed from a suicide attempt, but added: “This teacher apparently did not want to involve students in this incident in any way.”
The police spokesman said it was not immediately clear whether any students had previously been in a classroom with the teacher while he was armed. The weapon involved was a handgun, he said.
Students at the high school, which has an enrollment of about 2,000 pupils, were all being taken to a nearby convention center in Dalton, authorities said.
The incident came two weeks after a shooting rampage at a Florida high school left 17 dead and led to calls from U. S. President Donald Trump for arming teachers as a way to protect students.
“It is really serious after so many things have happened all over the country,” student Ricardo Perez told television station WTVC-TV in a telephone interview after the incident. “I’m shocked, I can’t believe it. I thought it was a dream.” (Reporting by Jonathan Allen and Joseph Ax in New York; editing by G Crosse)
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