Breach in security allowed gun on Kimball High School campus

DALLAS - Parents will meet with the Dallas school superintendent Tuesday night on the same campus where a student brought a gun to school and shot himself.

The 15-year-old arrived at Kimball High School in west Oak Cliff with a parent after classes were already in session. Dallas ISD Police Chief Craig Miller said there was a breach in security.

“He actually came through the metal detectors. It was detected, but they were ushered on through the metal detectors,” Miller said.

At the end of first period class, the teen accidently shot himself with the single shot Derringer in his pocket. The bullet hit his hand and leg.

Many parents rushed to the school after getting frantic text messages from their kids. Even more have questions about how the gun ended up on campus.

“That’s still a part of the investigation and we’re working on that,” Miller said.

The chief said the metal detectors are typically staffed by school employees, not police or security officers. Also, some doors at Kimball and various other schools across the district do not have metal detectors nearby.

“There’s so much confusion about metal detectors, exactly how they’re employed and how they’re used in the district,” he said. “We try to focus the students coming through multiple doors, but some students go to portables in the mornings and some students come in later in the day. We try to keep those manned as we should, but I think there’s much debate about metal detectors in general.”

Miller declined to talk about what problems the student may have been having at the school, but said he did have a conference that morning with administrators and a parent.

“Obviously there was need for them to talk to the staff,” he said.

The district said it will interview the teacher and all students who were in the classroom where the shooting happened. Metal detector policy changes will be made if necessary.

“I think the most important thing is we have to provide a safe for the kids to go to school and that’s all of our jobs. In this situation yesterday I do think we had a policy and procedure in place and it just wasn’t followed,” Miller said.