TORONTO: A 14-year-old student was shot and killed at a Toronto high school Wednesday, forcing frightened teens to stay in their locked-down classrooms for hours as police searched the place into the evening.
Police said it was not a situation in which a gunman was roaming the halls, but it was not known if the gunman was still in the school as the search began. The students finally were released just before 6 p.m. (2200 GMT), more than three hours after the lockdown.
The afternoon shooting at C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute follows eight school bomb scares last week in a country that prides itself on its low crime rate.
Last week, three high schools in the eastern province of Nova Scotia were evacuated after reports of bomb threats. A 14-year-old in the eastern province of New Brunswick was arrested after an explosive device was found in his school, and six teens in Ontario were arrested for allegedly writing bomb threats at a local elementary school.
I cannot begin to describe how my heart sinks every time I read a headline like the one that titles this article "Teenage boy dead after being shot at Toronto high school".
Senseless and our prayers are with this young man's family.
From Columbine to the Amish school shooting to the VA Tech tragedy and, this is something that has no simple answer but I am firmly in favor of our schools, in every country, having armed guards for protection.
We must protect the children. Simply put, they are precious and they are our future.
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