The University of Guadalajara (UdG) has emitted a “supervision alert” in response to the incident in the northern city of Monterrey Wednesday, in which a 15-year-old student opened fire at a private school, wounding a teacher and two other students before turning his weapon on himself.
This is the first incidence in Mexico of the kind of school shooting that has plagued the United States for the past few decades.
The UdG plans to instruct all its professors to discuss the incident with students, and ask them to “collaborate and cooperate” to help make campuses as secure as possible. UdG Rector Tonatiuh Padilla Bravo said it would be impossible to start checking students’ backpacks and belongings prior to them entering campuses and school facilities each day. Around 265,000 students are enrolled at UdG higher education and high school facilities in the state of Jalisco.
According to news media in Monterrey, Wednesday’s shooter was apparently suffering from depression. The school may have at one stage checked students’ backpacks each morning but the practice had lapsed.
The three victims were all shot on the head and are described as in “critical condition.”
Surveillance video of the incident shows the boy sitting at a desk in a class before opening fire with a handgun at his teacher and classmates. As the students rush for safety, he shoots himself in the head.