Dallas

Classes Continue Tuesday Amid High Security After Shooting

Counselors will be available at the school for students when they return Tuesday morning

Students at Italy High School will return to school 24 hours after a 16-year-old boy shot a 15-year-old girl in the school’s cafeteria.

Police have not officially released the identities of the victim or the accused shooter and have not hinted at a possible motive.

The accused shooter is currently being held on two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. He has been scheduled for an initial court hearing on Wednesday, January 24 at 10:30 a.m. in the 443rd District Courtroom in Ellis County.

The wounded girl is recovering at Parkland Hospital in Dallas.

“I did have a good source yesterday tell me as of yesterday that she was doing very well considering she had been shot more than once,” Ellis County Commissioner Paul Perry said.

Counselors will be available at the school for students when they return Tuesday morning. In addition, agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and explosives searched the school as a precaution Tuesday.

“I'm sure there’ll be some adjustments of security at the high school,” Perry said. “However this is a safe community.”

Perry thinks it was beneficial to have the students return to help them get back into a normal routine.

“It makes you think that no one is immune to violence in this day and age. You don't have to be in New York or Dallas,” Perry said. “You [can have] a violent incident in any society.”

About 300 people packed Central Baptist Church Monday night to pray for the girl wounded in the shooting. The vigil was held to bring comfort to residents in the town of about 1,900.

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