On Thursday morning, a sixth-grade girl was taken into custody after allegedly opening fire in her Middle School and injuring three people.
Two students and an adult caretaker working at the school were wounded in the shooting, according to a press release issued by Jefferson School District 251 board clerk Monica Pauley.
The sixth-grader pulled a gun from her bag and shot three people before being stopped by a teacher. There were no life-threatening injuries. People magazine reported that after the shooting at Rigby Middle School on Thursday morning, the students were evacuated to a nearby high school to be reunited with their parents.
Around 9.15 am, police were called to the school after students and staff members heard gunshots. Several law enforcement authorities were sent to the scene. The girl had fired several rounds of bullets inside and outside Rigby middle school, according to Jefferson County Sheriff Steve Anderson, The Guardian reported.
Anderson revealed that the girl stayed in close proximity to Idaho Falls. Her identity has not been revealed, and the motive for the assault remains unknown. The three people were shot in the legs and arms, but they were expected to live.
The wounded adult was treated and discharged with a gunshot wound in an extremity, according to Dr. Michael Lemon, emergency medical director at Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center. He said the bullet clearly passed through the arm.
“Today we had the worst nightmare a school district could encounter,” the Jefferson school district superintendent, Chad Martin, said about the appalling incident. The Governor of Idaho tweeted an appreciation message for the law enforcement authorities and school leaders responding to the situation and said he was praying for the lives and safety of those involved.
Krista Turnblom Gneiting, an eighth-grade math teacher, was named as the teacher who interrupted the shooting and was thanked by many for her quick reflex and service to her students. The district said school would resume on Monday. One Facebook user thought it was insensitive of the school to reopen just a weekend after the traumatic attack.
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“Their worlds were just shattered and you're asking them to take a few days to go back to school?! To walk down a hallway where their lives were forever changed?” the post added, “The audacity of this school district to make such a decision even before the kids were all home! I think we need to highly reconsider what post you just made!"
