LOS ANGELES _ Two students were shot in a classroom in Salvador Castro Middle School in the Westlake neighborhood of Los Angeles on Thursday morning and one is in critical condition, authorities said.
Police received a report of shots fired about 8:55 a.m. at the school on West Second Street, according to LAPD Officer Drake Madison.
The victims are a 15-year-old male, who is in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the head, and a 15-year-old female, who was shot in the wrist and is listed in fair condition.
Three other individuals also suffered minor injuries, said Capt. Erik Scott of the Los Angeles Fire Department _ a 30-year-old woman, an 11-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl. Scott described their injuries as minor abrasions, some from glass.
"We did notify the mayor's crisis response team to provide comfort to the family members affected," Scott said.
A girl believed to be the shooter was detained and a firearm was recovered, LAPD Officer Meghan Aguilar said.
The school has been deemed safe but remains on lockdown. The parents of all injured students were notified, Los Angeles School Police Chief Steve Zipperman said.
Tyresha McNair was standing at the corner of Beverly Boulevard and Loma Drive with her young niece. She said she saw news of the shooting on TV and came to get her daughter, a student at the middle school.
She said she hadn't received any notification from the school.
"I saw it on the news and I came here to get my baby," she said.
At the front gate of the school, McNair said she was directed to the back, which was blocked off. She said she had been texting her daughter but hadn't heard back yet.
"Any other time my baby would respond and she's not responding," McNair said. "I just want my daughter, I want my daughter."
In the process of clearing the scene, students were led from the classroom in handcuffs, patted down and then released.
"We will attend to the needs of these students, the witnesses, very carefully, with the understanding that this is very traumatic," Zipperman told reporters at the scene.
Castro Middle School is located in a building across the street from the main Belmont High School campus. The middle school building used to be part of Belmont High when the high school had a higher enrollment.
Zipperman said on KNX-AM that the school takes part in the district's safety plan that includes random searches of students for weapons and other contraband.
The Los Angeles Unified School District is the only district its size that requires every middle- and high-school campus to conduct daily random searches for weapons using metal-detecting wands.
However, an internal district audit of 20 schools released in April found inconsistencies in how random searches were conducted. Some schools failed to do the searches daily, the audit found. One-fourth lacked enough metal-detecting wands to search properly.
The district started random searches in 1993 after a 16-year-old was shot and killed at Fairfax High School. A month later, a student died from a shooting at Reseda High School.
The district began requiring the daily searches with metal-detecting wands in 2011 after two students were injured in a shooting at Gardena High School, district officials said.
Zipperman said students would be dismissed on the school's regular schedule, but that parents could pick up their children earlier if they wished.
At an informal presentation in January of good-attendance certificates, Principal Erick Mitchell said his campus was becoming a destination for families who wanted a smaller school setting. Last year, Castro Middle had an enrollment of 355 students.
The enrollment is 92 percent Latino, and most students are from low-income families.
Mitchell added that the school has made academic strides because more students are coming in better prepared from elementary school and because the school has emphasized long-term goals such as college and career.
This focus also has improved overall student behavior, he said.
"We have a new culture here," Mitchell said. "I love this school. We have really good kids here. It's the best-kept secret in town."
