A 16-year-old freshman male who brought a gun to school accidentally shot himself on Friday morning, while inside a classroom.
Alarm was raised when the firearm accidentally discharged at Frederick Douglass High School in Lexington, wounding the student in his left hand.
Law enforcement at the scene immediately secured the weapon before the boy was taken to the University of Kentucky Hospital where is expected to be fine after suffering the non life-threatening injury to his thumb.
Students filed out of Frederick Douglass High School in Lexington, Kentucky after a gunshot accidentally fired on Friday morning, hurting just the student who brought it in the hand
Police gathered on the scene in front of the school, left, after a freshman male, 16, brought the gun and showed it in class, when it misfired and hurt his thumb
The alarming accident caused the school to announce it will install metal detectors
No one else was injured according to Lexington police.
The school did not go into lockdown following the incident as the weapon was removed.
Lisa Deffendall, Fayette County Public Schools spokeswoman, said that the student will face charges for possessing a weapon on school property and wanton endangerment.
‘He will not be back to Frederick Douglass High School,’ Principal Lester Diaz wrote in a letter sent to the students’ families Friday.
The incident has spurred a decision to place metal detectors in the school to heighten security for the students, according to Fayette County Schools Superintendent Manny Caulk.
‘This is something we must do,’ Caulk said.
‘Students cannot learn at high levels if they’re not safe and if they don’t feel safe. We’re going to do everything we can to make sure that students feel safe, and that teachers and staff are safe in the building as well,’ he added.
Student Benjamin Roberts, 14, described the experience as scary as he reveals nearby high schools have experience gun threats in the past weeks
The student in question will not be allowed back in the school, according to the Frederick Douglass principal, and metal detectors will be installed as a new precautionary measure
A student witness who was in the classroom when the gunshot fired said that another student was playing with the gun, before it went off, as told to CBS.
Students who were in the classroom at the time of the misfire were taken into another location to speak with authorities as well as school counselors.
Student Benjamin Roberts, 14, said the experience was ‘scary’.
‘It was very scary to just be inside that school knowing that gunfire had been released earlier that day,’ he said to Kentucky.com
‘It was pretty concerning [not] know what intentions that person had… It was very concerning just knowing what could have happened and thankfully only one person was injured,’ he added.
‘Sometimes I feel paranoid that it might happen here. There’s been threats at Henry Clay and Tates Creek. There’s been threats at Frederick Douglass here before. I think it can happen but Frederick Douglass is doing a great job of keeping its students safe,’ he said.