2 Students Shot, Injured Inside Chicago Public High School

CHICAGO – A 15-year-old Chicago high school student shot another student in the leg with a handgun Tuesday, with the bullet apparently ricocheting and also wounding the shooter, police said.

The students, both boys, were inside a classroom at the Chicago Vocational Career Academy on the city's South Side when the shooting occurred around 2:30 p.m., police spokeswoman Monique Bond said. She said a gun was recovered at the scene.

The other student is 14, Bond said.

The Chicago Fire Department transported the teens to local hospitals in "critical/serious" condition, spokeswoman Eve Rodriguez said. Police spokesman Tom Polick initially said both students were in good condition.

A woman who answered the phone at the school said she could not provide any information on the incident and referred questions to a school administrator, who did not answer the phone.

Anitra Schulte, a spokeswoman for the Chicago Public Schools, said she had no information, but a CPS spokesperson was on the way to the scene.

It was the second shooting on school property in less than a month. On March 22, two students standing in the parking lot were shot and wounded after a car pulled into the lot and an occupant opened fire, Bond said.

The students both recovered from their wounds, but no arrests were made, Bond said.

The academy, which opened in 1940, has about 2,000 students in grades 9-12. Students enter a three-year vocational career path in their sophomore year, including "majors" such as accounting, cosmetology, graphic arts and carpentry, according to the school's Web site.

The most recent fatal shooting of a student in the Chicago area occurred in 2003 when 16-year-old Kenneth Porter was shot a few blocks from Proviso East High School in suburban Maywood, according to the National School Safety Center, which tracks fatal shootings at and near schools.

In 2002, 18-year-old Maurice Davis was fatally shot across the street from Englewood Technical Preparatory Academy, a Chicago public school, according to the center.