ODESSA, Texas — On Monday at Odessa High School, a student was shot in the foot on the west side of campus at around 9:45 a.m. A large police presence eventually cleared out after hours on the scene.
By 11:30 a.m., students and staff were believed to be safe as the school district responded accordingly.
Several law enforcement agencies -- ECISD Police, the Odessa Police Department and the Texas Department of Public Safety -- were called into action and responded quickly.
"Beginning with our ECISD procedures we have five police officers on campus at Odessa High School every day," said Mike Adkins, chief communications officer for Ector County ISD. "There’s also a 'Weapons K9' unit that’s on campus and there is a security guard in the various parking lots.”
After going into a lockdown initially in case of an imminent threat inside the building, the school district was able to move into a 'secure/hold' status.
"Which lessens the severity and the response for our police officers, but still inside the school nobody moves because our officers still had work to do to secure the campus," Adkins said. "But, at that point, it is a signal that they believe there was not an imminent threat inside the building to students and staff to kind of move it to that level."
Police have determined this to be an isolated incident and that the shooting was not targeting OHS.
"This is why, again, we do drills and we have emergency procedures and we talk about them throughout the school year, but this is not a good day to be a parent of an Odessa High School student and it's a scary situation," Adkins said. "Our hearts go out to them, and we want to support them and their students as much as we can."
Efforts and the response by the school district will continue, says Ector County ISD Superintendent Dr. Scott Muri.
“We will continue to have an escalated or elevated presence of officers on the Odessa High School campus," Dr. Muri said. "In addition to that, we have added counselors – an additional set of counselors to the Odessa High School campus to provide any support that either students or staff members may happen to need over the next several days.”
Witnesses were identified quickly and cooperated as law enforcement personnel worked the situation throughout the day. Five ECISD students have been arrested in relation to the incident, including one 15-year-old male OHS student charged with two counts of aggravated assault, one count of unlawful carry of weapons and one count of possession of a controlled substance.
ECISD Police are leading the active investigation.
NewsWest 9 will continue to provide updates as more information becomes available.