ALinChainz
10-10-2007, 03:03 PM
CLEVELAND - A gunman opened fire Wednesday at an alternative school and three children were taken to a hospital, and two adults were also injured, the mayor said.
"We have no reason to believe there's more than one suspect," Mayor Frank Jackson told reporters gathered outside the SuccessTech Academy. He also said the school had been secured, but he offered no other details.
The extent of the injuries was unknown.
Ronnell Jackson, 15, said he saw a shooter running down a hall at SuccessTech Academy.
"He was about to shoot me but I got out just in time," he said. "He was aiming at me I got out just in time."
Another student, Doneisha LeVert, said she heard the principal say "Code Blue" over the public address system, and the students started running. She said she hid in a closet with some of her friends.
Tammy Mundy, 38, who has a son and daughter at the school, told The Plain Dealer of Cleveland that her daughter called when the shooting started.
"She said, 'Mom they're shooting in here, kids are running out, I'm hiding in the closet,'" Mundy told the newspaper.
Then she called her 18-year-old son, Darnell Rodgers, on his cell phone, and he told her he had been shot in the arm.
"He said, 'Mom I got shot,'" Mundy told the newspaper.
Students stood outside the building, many in tears and on cell phones. Family members also stood outside, anxiously waiting for their children to be released.
"I'm scared. I'm hoping no more people got hurt," Jackson said.
SuccessTech Academy is a downtown alternative high school in the Cleveland city school district. It has about 240 mainly black students with a small number of white and Hispanic students. All the students are poor under federal poverty guidelines.
The school has an academic rating of continuous improvement, in the middle of the state's ratings for how well students perform. Its graduation rate is 94 percent, well above the district's rate of 55 percent.
The school emphasizes entrepreneurship by teaming teachers with local business owners to teach students about the business world. It uses an approach developed by E City Cleveland, a nonprofit group aimed at teaching business skills to inner-city teens.
According to the group's Web site, "E CITY is inspiring these teens by showing them that their innate street smarts, mental toughness, and creativity can be turned toward viable business ideas."
Story (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071010/ap_on_re_us/school_shooting_18)
"We have no reason to believe there's more than one suspect," Mayor Frank Jackson told reporters gathered outside the SuccessTech Academy. He also said the school had been secured, but he offered no other details.
The extent of the injuries was unknown.
Ronnell Jackson, 15, said he saw a shooter running down a hall at SuccessTech Academy.
"He was about to shoot me but I got out just in time," he said. "He was aiming at me I got out just in time."
Another student, Doneisha LeVert, said she heard the principal say "Code Blue" over the public address system, and the students started running. She said she hid in a closet with some of her friends.
Tammy Mundy, 38, who has a son and daughter at the school, told The Plain Dealer of Cleveland that her daughter called when the shooting started.
"She said, 'Mom they're shooting in here, kids are running out, I'm hiding in the closet,'" Mundy told the newspaper.
Then she called her 18-year-old son, Darnell Rodgers, on his cell phone, and he told her he had been shot in the arm.
"He said, 'Mom I got shot,'" Mundy told the newspaper.
Students stood outside the building, many in tears and on cell phones. Family members also stood outside, anxiously waiting for their children to be released.
"I'm scared. I'm hoping no more people got hurt," Jackson said.
SuccessTech Academy is a downtown alternative high school in the Cleveland city school district. It has about 240 mainly black students with a small number of white and Hispanic students. All the students are poor under federal poverty guidelines.
The school has an academic rating of continuous improvement, in the middle of the state's ratings for how well students perform. Its graduation rate is 94 percent, well above the district's rate of 55 percent.
The school emphasizes entrepreneurship by teaming teachers with local business owners to teach students about the business world. It uses an approach developed by E City Cleveland, a nonprofit group aimed at teaching business skills to inner-city teens.
According to the group's Web site, "E CITY is inspiring these teens by showing them that their innate street smarts, mental toughness, and creativity can be turned toward viable business ideas."
Story (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071010/ap_on_re_us/school_shooting_18)