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Parents and Students Reunite After Middle School Shooting

February 1st, 2013

Relieved parents were reunited with their children after the shooting of a 14-year-old Price Middle School student on the school’s campus Thursday. A school resource officer arrested the suspected shooter, a 15-year-old male. Immediately after the shooting, the school was placed on lockdown and parents waited for hours to see their children.

It was a chaotic scene as close to one hundred parents searched for their children after they were dropped off by a handful of buses. After finding each other in the crowd, some families hugged and others cried tears of joy. That was the case with Bonita Glover who reunited with her 8^th grade son Terrell.

“I an so happy to see my son. I’m glad all this over with.”

It was also an emotional moment for Shawnta Corsey and her 6^th grade son Zaire.

“I was so happy you know, just knowing he’s safe and okay.”

Corsey left work early after hearing about the shooting.

“Oh my God, at work I was shaking. They can’t have cellphones in the school, so you can’t text them to know if they’re okay.”

Zaire was also relieved.

“Glad I saw my mom. Glad I didn’t die.”

Zaire heard gunfire while sitting in his language arts class.

“I heard like gunshots from like different directions. It was kind of scary, because I thought he was going to run into my classroom and shoot us, but our teacher had us on lockdown, so we were safe.”

But the incident has left Corsey wondering whether that’s truly the case. She plans to go to the Atlanta Board of Education to ask school officials how they plan to make the school safer.

APS officials say the shooting took place at 1:50 p.m. Thursday. After the shooting, the student was transported to Grady Memorial Hospital and the school was placed on lockdown by police and Atlanta Public School officials. School officials say they took additional time to release the students to ensure all safety and security measures were followed. Hospital officials say the victim was in stable condition and has been released. After the incident, another student was taken into police custody in connection with the shooting.