The off-duty sheriff’s deputy teaching a law enforcement class at South Vermillion County High School in Clinton, Indiana, accidentally shot one of the teens in the class with his service gun.
WTHI says that the sheriff’s deputy was named Tim DisPennett. DisPennett has been a sheriff’s deputy for 19 years.
This is deputy Tim DisPennett, he was teaching a vocational class at South Vermillion High School in Vermillion County Indiana when he discharged his weapon shooting a high school student.
He was supposed to be leading a class on how to be an officer… pic.twitter.com/ctTyeQEtkI— 🥀 Imposter 🥀 (@Imposter_Edits) November 19, 2022
On Thursday, November 17, around 9:30 a.m., a shooting happened while DisPennett showed students what a good cop would do if a “bad guy” showed up.
But the point may have been misunderstood since shooting an innocent high school student probably wasn’t the right way to handle the situation.
School officials said that, luckily, paramedics were there in minutes, and the student was taken right away to a hospital in nearby Terre Haute to be treated for injuries that were not life-threatening.
In a letter to parents, the school’s principal wrote, “This morning at South Vermillion High School, there was an isolated incident in one of our vocational classrooms. The incident was an accidental discharge of a firearm by a law enforcement officer during a drill … Only SVHS is currently on lockdown, due to the abundance of emergency personnel in the building.”
The Daily Mail says that DisPennett meant to grab his training weapon but instead picked up his real, loaded gun and fired it at the student.
Superintendent Dave Chapman said, “The instructor immediately began first aid. It needs to be clear that this was an accidental shooting and that at no time were the students and staff at the high school in any danger or threat.”
The school stayed on lockdown until 11:45 a.m. when DisPennett was put on administrative leave, as is standard procedure for the sheriff’s office. Authorities also talked to the students who were in the classroom when the shooting happened. Shortly after, they started letting students out of school as their parents came to get them.
Since no one was killed, Chapman said that the shooting had a happy ending. I certainly hope the kid got an A in the class.
Featured Image screengrab from embedded Tweet.