Cummings Middle School in Brownsville, Texas, was closed and students were evacuated by school bus after a 15-year-old boy was shot and killed by police.
Brownsville police arrived at the school Wednesday morning in response to reports of a student spotted with a gun in the hallway. A police officer shot the student, Jaime Gonzalez, who was rushed to the hospital by paramedics but was then pronounced dead.
The weapon brandished by Gonzalez “in a threatening manner” was later found to be a pellet gun.
Brownsville ISD issued a statement that none of the other 50 students or the school’s employees were injured during the incident. School buses relocated the middle school students and employees to a local high school gym to speak to counselors and await pick-up by their parents while police continued their investigation.
While Cummings Middle School remained closed on Thursday, classes resumed at a new elementary school that was recently constructed but remains vacant, which meant the transportation deparment had to implement routing changes on the fly.
Art Rendon, director of transportation at Brownsville ISD, told School Transportation News that an additional 420 students who normally walk to the middle school had to ride the bus, in addition to the appromately 400 to 450 students who are transported from their normal bus stops. He added that the elementary school is about 8 miles further away from the middle school.
“Everything went pretty smooth,” he said, adding the no additional vehicles or drivers were necessary.
