A 7-year-old boy was taken to the hospital with what officials said were injuries that were not life-threatening after an “accidental discharge” of a firearm inside an Anne Arundel County, Maryland, elementary school.
It happened Wednesday morning inside a classroom at Freetown Elementary in Glen Burnie.
According to authorities, the child with the weapon injured his hand when the discharge occurred.
A teacher took possession of the firearm and rendered aid to the student, a police spokesperson said. None of the other children in the classroom were injured.
Anne Arundel County schools Superintendent Mark Bedell said the teacher did a “wonderful job” retrieving the weapon and making sure the student was received to the nurse’s office.
Capt. Jacklyn Davis praised the teacher’s action and said the teacher “showed what a hero looked like.”
The injured student was taken to Baltimore Shock Trauma for treatment.
Freetown Elementary dismissed all its students at 11:15 a.m. The plan is to resume school on Thursday, Bedell said.
Bedell added there will be crisis counselors Wednesday and Thursday to handle any trauma in the school community.
“When we hear calls like this, especially involving children or elderly, it’s very unsettling for all of us, because there’s so many unknowns,” Anne Arundel County police Chief Amal E. Awad said during a news conference. “We’re just grateful that this incident didn’t evolve into something worse.”
WTOP’s Abigail Constantino, Jeff Leon and Kate Ryan contributed to this report.
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