Some Parents Left In Panic After Philadelphia High School Shooting
By Dan Wing and Natasha Brown
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Some parents were left in a panic as they tried to figure out exactly what was going on at Delaware Valley Charter High School, and more importantly where was their child?
As the school was placed on lockdown (See Related Story), most of the children were escorted from the building as police began their investigation into the shooting. And while officials told parents waiting out front that all students were out of the building, some hadn't been able to get in touch with their child.
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"I've barely heard from her. My question is, is she one of the kids that got hit. That's my concern," a parent said.
Other parents knew their child was okay physically, but worried about their emotional state.
"Well I'm just glad that she's safe, but I don't know exactly what she's going through being inside the school when the shooting happened," another parent said.
"I was a nervous wreck. Let's just put it that way," parent Aleshia Crutcher said.
In the frenzied moments after the shooting, a sense of relief for worried parents.
"I was like oh my God, he told me he was safe and where they were, in the back of the school in the art room," Crutcher said.
Aleshia and her son Desmond strolled by Albert Einstein Medical Center heading home. Inside the hospital, which sits a couple of blocks away in the shadows of the school, a male and female student, both 15-years-old, recovering from gunshot wounds to the arm.
"We were all kind of shook up a bit. But where we were, we couldn't see anything, so right now I guess we were lucky we didn't see anything," student Desmond Taylor said.
"They just said two kids were harmed in the gym. That's all they told us and we were on lockdown for an hour," student Demond Nay said.
Students in other parts of the school say they had no idea what was happening. They heard nothing, but they saw the fierce police presence swarming the building.
"They just got home," parent Keisha Thompson said. "Thank God, I'm going home."
Thompson says her daughter crouched under a desk to call her while the school was on lockdown.
"This is a surprise for us. You know, everybody just wanted their kids and go home," Thompson said.
Both victims suffered non life-threatening injuries. The 15–year-old female student was released from the hospital earlier Friday evening. The 15-year-old male student remains hospitalized at this hour. He is in stable condition right now.
The shooting remains under investigation.