Gunshot fired in Philadelphia high school; 3 students held

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Gunshot fired in Philadelphia high school; 3 students held

Updated 3:09 pm, Friday, January 29, 2016

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Police say three students are in custody after a gun went off during a fight at a Philadelphia high school. No one was injured.

The gunshot was fired at Benjamin Franklin High School just before noon Friday as a group of boys fought in a stairwell.

Officer Christine O'Brien says SWAT teams went room to room in the school looking for the gun and suspects. She says the school was on lockdown and was being evacuated as areas were cleared.

. . .

O'Brien says interviews are underway and others may be taken into custody.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/education/article/Gun-goes-off-in-Philadelphia-high-school-fight-6793263.php

[BumRushDaShow]

1. I drive past there every day on the way home

They sure kept that hush hush... The school is literally about 2 blocks from our major all-news radio station too... The area is undergoing major gentrification and the school is near a huge intersection and just a couple blocks from a magnet school (Masterman). When I was in high school, Ben Franklin was all-boys (and William Penn was all girls) - both public.

Other coverage: http://6abc.com/news/police-shot-fired-in-philly-school-not-active-shooter-situation/1179034/

[MH1]

4. Pres. Obama did an event at Masterman in 2010.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_R._Masterman_School

[BumRushDaShow]

5. Yup

I was excited that he went there and for the kids and staff!

I went there before it became a high school (1970 - 1975, where my class actually started the first high school class out of Masterman but I left to go to Girls' High). That Masterman building used to be old Girls' High (when my mother was there in the '40s).

[passiveporcupine]

2. Don't all schools in big urban areas use metal detectors now?

How do kids get guns inside the schools?

[BumRushDaShow]

6. Ben Franklin High did

and apparently at every door. And these have been in place in a number of our high schools (although not all depending on risk) since 1999, where this school was one of the pilot schools for it back then - the link is a reprint of a 1999 article).

The school has all kinds of surveillance cameras in there so they are reviewing (not sure if the cameras are in the stairwells where the incident took place but I expect they have a lot of investigation to do including interviewing some kids who apparently claimed to have recorded the fight on their cell phones).

[trillion]

3. Thank goodness someone was armed.