By BARBARA GREEN
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One week ago a 14-year-old boy went into his classroom at Apalachee High School in Winder, GA shooting and killing four people and injuring nine.
According to Education Week Tracker this was the first deadly shooting of the new academic year and the deadliest since March 2023 when six people were killed at The Covenant School in Nashville.
During the course of just two days last week, three people were injured by gunfire during a football game in Martinsburg, WV, a 15-year-old student was shot in a school bathroom in Maryland and died from his injuries and a teacher was grazed by a stray bullet as he prepared for class in his room in the Bronx, NY.
Lt. Bob Blackburn of the Bowie Independent School District and Bowie Police school resource team said they immediately got word of the shooting in Georgia on Sept. 4 from other schools, law enforcement and general media. Bowie has an SRO on each of its four campuses.
“When you get the word it creates a certain immediate heightened awareness. You try to stay highly aware each day, but it goes like a wave through law enforcement as you begin to think are we prepared if that happened right now,” reflects Blackburn.

Read the full story in the mid-week Bowie News.