SAN ANTONIO – A handgun loaded with blanks was discharged in a classroom at Joel C. Harris Middle School on Wednesday morning, a San Antonio Independent School District representative said.
SAISD spokeswoman Leslie Price said the gun accidentally discharged inside a backpack and the 12-year-old boy who police said brought that backpack to school is in district police custody.
Price did not say what kind of gun was inside the backpack, but said it discharged accidentally after the seventh-grader placed his backpack on a table in the classroom.
Price said the school does not have metal detectors and sutdents are not searched when they come in the door.
District police are investigating why the student brought that weapon to school, what he had planned to do with it and where he got it from.
The school, located in the 300 block of Pruitt near Interstate 35 and Highway 90, was placed on lockdown while police investigated the incident.
Just after 1 p.m., the lockdown was lifted. Classrooms resumed and parents who wished to take their children home were allowed to do so.