Authorities: Teacher talks down teen with a gun after he took classroom hostage
HILIPPI, W.Va. (AP) — With 29 terrified students looking on, a West Virginia high school teacher managed to calm a 14-year-old student who pointed a gun at her in her classroom, giving a police chief time to arrive and convince the boy to free his peers and surrender, authorities said.
No one was hurt Tuesday in the hostage-taking drama that rocked a high school in the small Appalachian town of Philippi, home to about 3,000 people some 115 miles south of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
It was the ninth day of the new school year, and some students said they didn’t believe it at first when a so-called “code red” alert was raised.
State Police Lt. Michael Baylous said it began after 1 p.m. Tuesday with the student taking a pistol into a second-floor classroom at Philip Barbour High School, a drab brown campus in a rural area of tree-peppered rolling hills. He wouldn’t say what spurred the hostage-taking, citing an ongoing investigation.
But praise followed quickly for the teacher and police chief who helped bring the ordeal to a safe conclusion.
Without naming the teacher, Barbour County Schools Superintendent Jeffrey Woofter credited her for maintaining control just when classes were about to change. Woofter also praised the local police chief for getting quickly to the scene and talking the suspect into giving up.
http://wsls.com/2015/08/26/authorities-teacher-talks-down-teen-with-a-gun-after-he-took-classroom-hostage/
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