Teacher accidentally fires gun in classroom, students injured

Dennis Alexander

Police say a teacher in California accidentally fired his gun in a classroom, injuring three students. It happened on Tuesday at Seaside High School as Dennis Alexander was teaching a gun safety lesson for his administration of justice class.

Police say Alexander, who also serves as a reserve police officer, was pointing the gun at the ceiling to make sure it was not loaded when the weapon discharged. Three students were injured by debris, including a 17-year-old whose father said his son sustained moderate injuries when bullet fragments lodged in his neck.

One of the parents of an injured 17-year-old said that the teacher had told the class that he was going to use the gun for a demonstration about how to disarm someone and was checking if the weapon was loaded.

"It's the craziest thing," a parent said, adding that he only learned of his son's injury when the boy came home. "It could have been very bad." Alexander was placed on administrative leave from his teaching job and he was also placed on administrative leave at the Sand City Police Department.

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No. of students injured