Armed student shot in the school office at Mesquite, TX charter school
One of the "other school shootings" that doesn't get live coverage on cable news.
Mesquite, TX police were dispatched to an active shooter call at 8:50 am yesterday morning when someone saw a teen entering the Pioneer Technology & Arts Academy with a gun. Much like the shooting at Perry High in Iowa last month, the principal was the first person to confront the armed student.
“The principal, she was yelling,” Castañón (student) said. “It was right outside our classroom. She started yelling to put it down.”
When police arrived, a 16-year-old student was alone in the school office with a gun. Officers reportedly gave the student verbal commands to put down the weapon, but at some point during negotiations, officers opened fire.
19 shots were fired at the student and he was struck in the leg. The department confirmed the student did not fire his weapon.
The student was wounded and transported to the hospital where he remains in police custody. No other students and staff were injured. Police have not released information about how many shots the three officers fired or how many struck the teen.
The school went on lockdown for three hours and then students were released to their parents who were waiting at the church across the street. Having a predetermined location for parents to wait for students is a best practice.
Here is local CBS coverage of the shooting:
School Profile
Pioneer Technology & Arts Academy in Mesquite
Grades: 5-12
Total Enrollment: 600
Student-Teacher Ratio: 16:1
Total minority enrollment: 89%
Economically disadvantaged: 68%
The school has two classroom buildings with interior hallways and is situated in a suburban area with commercial buildings and homes surrounding the campus.
The entire campus is fenced with gates between the street and the school parking lot.
Incident follows historical trends
Most shootings on campus are committed by someone who is allowed to be at the school, usually a current student. When a campus is fenced, the fence doesn’t stop an attacker who is allowed to come inside.
Morning classes is the most common time period for a shooting across the full dataset of +2,650 incidents going back to 1966.
Most active shooter plans and drills focus on a shooting inside a classroom. It’s important to also consider that there have been 44 shootings in the school office including attacks that begin by targeting administrators. In the school shooting plot that was averted in Ohio earlier this month, a student and an adult planned to target the school office first.
Considering impacts to the school office is an important planning factor because the administrative staff who send out emergency alerts may be working in the office where the incident starts.
Gun violence on campuses nationwide
Shooting at Pioneer Technology and Arts Academy is the 45th shooting at a school in 2024.
Last week:
4 students shot during dismissal (GA)
One killed and two wounded during fight in school parking lot (ID)
Teen killed and a teen wounded at front door of school (CA)
Man fatally shot next to school (CA)
Student with 11 guns and 1000 rounds of ammo arrested for a school shooting plot at his Catholic high school in Southern California. He was planning the attack for the 25th anniversary of Columbine in April.
David Riedman is the creator of the K-12 School Shooting Database and a national expert on school shootings. Listen to my recent interviews on Freakonomics Radio, New England Journal of Medicine, and Iowa Public Radio the day after the Perry High shooting.