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Shooting at Redondo Union High School
A 16-year old student wounded
by Mark McDermott
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Police respond to the shooting at Redondo Union High School on Friday morning. Photo by Mark McDermott. |
It was a strange morning at Redondo Union High School last Friday.
The mid-morning snack break had just ended and students were making their way back to classrooms when a backpack fell to the ground with a huge bang, and a 16-year old male student stumbled, bleeding, a few feet away. The explosion could be heard through most the school, but nearly everybody who heard it–including the student who had been hit–thought it was only a firecracker. In fact, the student had just taken a bullet through the arm and into his chest cavity.
"He looked kind of stunned," said Brett Jordan, a senior who was standing about 20 feet away when the accident occurred. "He looked kind of confused, sort of falling backwards." Neither Jordan or any of the other students standing nearby thought it was a gunshot, and everybody continued to their classrooms as the injured student was escorted to the nurse’s office by a security officer.
According to the police investigation, the student told the nurse he had been hit by an M-80 explosion, but as the nurse examined his wounds, she realized the situation was much more serious.
"No," she told the student, "You’ve been shot."
The nurse notified school administration, and within minutes the school’s intruder bell was sounded and the school went into lockdown mode. Students had practiced the intruder drill only two weeks earlier, and most thought this was just another drill. They calmly made their way under their desks.
"We knew just what to do,"said senior Kathryn Dym. "We were just like, oh, it’s not that big of a deal. I didn’t think it was anything."
The Redondo Beach Police Department also had a plan in place, called the active shooter scenario, which has been part of their preparation since the Columbine incident. "You go in to neutralize the shooter as soon as possible," said Sergeant Phil Keenan. "It grew out of school scenarios where you have multiple victims."
Police quickly recovered the gun, a 38-caliber Derringer pistol, and identified the student who had brought it into the school. He was also a 16-year old, and he although he knew the gun had discharged, he told detectives he was unaware that anyone had been wounded. He had taken the gun and hidden it on campus, but surrendered without struggle when police arrived. The boy who was shot, it turned out, was one of his friends--the two had gone surfing together just the day before.
"I can tell you there was no malintent," said Keenan.
The wounded student was rushed to UCLA-Harbor General Medical Center, where he has since been recovering without complication. Keenan said that considering where the bullet hit, it was fairly miraculous that more serious injuries were not sustained. "Ninety out of a hundred times, a shot like that is likely fatal," he said.
School Principal Shelley Weston said she visited the recovering patient this week. "I told the young man, for the unluckiest, he certainly was the luckiest. The unlucky part is obviously that he got shot, but the most important part was that he wasn’t injured to a greater degree."
Because there was no malintent involved, the student responsible for the shooting was released into the custody of his parents. He now faces possible felony charges for carrying a firearm onto a school campus, and he is suspended from school while he awaits a hearing for possible expulsion.
The Aftermath
The incident occurred at 9:57 a.m., and by 12:10 p.m. the school had resumed its normal operations. According to Redondo Beach Unified School District spokesman Jerry Klein, only a handful of parents took their parents out of school that afternoon, and only one class period was missed. All things considered, the incident passed with remarkable calm. Most of the students in the school didn’t even realize a shooting had occurred until later in the afternoon. .
"The kids knew exactly what to do," said Klein. "They were very co-operative, and there were no incidents of kids freaking out or doing anything they weren’t supposed to do."
While confined to their classrooms, students passed the time playing games, and one language arts class even watched the movie Selena.
Jeff Creeden, a parent who arrived during the incident by coincidence to take his son to a dental appointment, wondered if the days of heavier school security might not be on the horizon. "You’d hate to see schools with metal detectors at the entrance, but maybe that’s what it’s coming too," he said.
Another parent, Karen Merrill, said the incident didn’t worry her. "I still believe this is a safe school," she said. "I’m not scared. I’m very confident this is a safe place for my children."
Jerry Klein said that the school board is not inclined towards installing metal detectors. He noted that with the numerous entrances to the school, it would be a near impossibility so set up security checkpoints all over the school. "I don’t think there is anything you can do to prevent something like this from happening," he said. "There is no magic bullet."
As senior Brett Jordan said, "It was just freaky."
Sgt Keenan concurred. "The anti-gun control people always say that guns don’t shoot people, people shoot people," he said. "But in this case, the gun really did almost have a mind of its own." ER