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Update: Dallas ISD officials say one student was hit by debris and checked out by paramedics. That student was later released to their parent.
The full comment from spokesperson Robyn L. Harris:
A student at John Carpenter Elementary brought a gun to campus this morning and was accidentally discharged in the cafeteria. The weapon was safely retrieved by school staff, and Dallas ISD Police were immediately contacted. Another student was hit by debris and checked out by paramedics, who was later released to their parent. The student who brought the weapon will be disciplined according to the Student Code of Conduct.
A gun discharged in the cafeteria at an Oak Cliff elementary school this morning.
The gun went off early this morning while students were eating breakfast before class at the John W. Carpenter Elementary cafeteria. The school is located in Oak Cliff at 2121 Tosca Lane.
District officials told TV reporters that a student was in possession of the weapon and that it went off accidentally. They reported that no one was injured.
The school did not go on lockdown and classes went on as usual. According to WFAA, “Dallas ISD said there was no reason to believe there is any ongoing threat toward the school, but police are investigating the incident.”
Some parents picked their children up from school following the incident.
One Carpenter parent Yvette Lozano tells us her child was in the cafeteria eating breakfast when the shot was fired, and he was “very scared,” she says without expounding.
The local station spoke with a parent and student who left afterward, and they relay a chilling situation.
“My friend told me she almost got shot today,” 5th grade student Abbey told WFAA. “I was so confused. She told me someone brung [sic] a gun, and they were showing it to everybody. And while they was playing with it, it went off.”
(Abbey came to school early to show off her pink outfit that she was wearing for breast cancer awareness, the reporter notes, but she went to a classroom, not the cafeteria.)
A reporter from Smash Da Topic waited outside the school for a statement, but no one ever came out to say what exactly happened or what is being done to determine how it happened.
Dallas ISD requires clear backpacks for students in grades 6-12, so that doesn’t apply at Carpenter.
Police officials referred us to DISD.
This is a developing story.
