Toy guns and Snowed in school officer turn violent at Taft Union High School
Not even a month after the Sandy Hook shooting, another student decided to resolve his issues through gunfire at a high school in rural California.
The student said he was being bullied by two other boys who became his targets Thursday morning at Taft Union High School. He took a shotgun that belonged to his brother and carried it to school with him after class had already begun.
A neighbor near Taft Union High School saw the 16-year-old and the gun but decided not to interfere with what may have been a toy. The neighbor has a son at Taft Union High School in the 10th grade who was not involved in the shooting, according to CNN.
The neighbor later heard two gun shots in the direction of the science building of Taft Union High School. Officials report being notified by a neighbor but did not verify if it was the same person who saw the student with the gun.
The school has an assigned armed police officer who was absent during the shooting due to snowfall, according to Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood.
Though the shooter intended to injure, if not kill, two other students who made his life difficult enough to endure possible juvenile attempted murder charges, only one student was shot. That student is in critical condition at Kern Medical Center.
The teacher who interfered with the shooter and eventually got the gunman to surrender suffered a small head injury from a pellet that backfired and hit him in the head. Other students were injured while exiting the school and moving to the football field.
Accordingly, classes were only cancelled for Friday. The school heads decided a weekend is enough time for the students to grieve, do their homework and be ready for class on Monday morning.
Many generic apologies are pouring in from local political leaders who have fond memories of visiting Taft Union High School.
The shooter, whose name has not been released, was taken into custody.
