Students returned to Wilmer-Hutchins High School on Monday following a shooting that occurred inside a classroom just days before.
A 17-year-old was shot in the upper thigh by a classmate who is also believed to be 17, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
While Dallas police are purportedly not sure of an exact motive, they believe the shooting was deliberate and the result of a personal conflict between the two students rather than a mass shooting attempt.
After a teacher intervened and “directed the shooter” away from the classroom, the suspect was arrested near the athletic fields about 30 minutes after the shooting took place, police reported. The weapon used in the shooting was a handgun.
According to Dallas ISD police, the shooting took place shortly after 10:30 a.m. on April 12. The school was secured within minutes, and emergency medical services arrived on the scene before 11 a.m. to transport the victim to an area hospital.
The victim was treated for a non-life-threatening injury.
“This is a very, very, very hard day today, and I’m standing here with more than just a heavy heart,” Dallas ISD Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde said at a news conference outside Wilmer-Hutchins High School on Friday. “… This can never become acceptable.”
Emotional parents were reunited with their children outside the school Friday afternoon one by one.
The shooting has raised questions about how the suspect was able to get the gun inside the building. The high school has metal detectors, and Dallas ISD requires students to have a clear backpack.
The clear backpack requirement came after the deadly Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas, in May of 2022. The new policy was enacted in hopes of ensuring safer schools.
Police say they will be reviewing on-site video evidence to determine exactly how the weapon was transported inside the school and what events led to the shooting.
Dallas ISD assured concerned parents and students there would be a heightened police presence on campus today. Additionally, mental health professionals will be available at the school for anyone struggling with the recent event.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, there have been multiple firearm-related incidents in Dallas ISD in recent years. A student was shot in the parking lot of a high school in North Dallas in May of 2023, and an elementary school student got a gun onto their campus, where it was discharged the year previous.
Dallas ISD has also struggled to comply with a state law that went into effect last year requiring every public school campus to maintain an armed security guard or police officer despite its enormous operating budget, DX reported.
