The teens were sitting in the back of a classroom at the Chicago Vocational Career Academy on Tuesday when the gun went off as one boy passed the gun to the other, said Robert Lopez, an assistant deputy police superintendent. The bullet struck one boy in the thigh and the other near the knee.
One of the boys, 14-year-old Jodale Woodfork, was in good condition at Cook County's John H. Stroger Hospital, where he was expected to stay Tuesday night for observation, hospital spokesman Don Rashid said.
Police and school officials said a 15-year-old student brought the gun to school but did not release his name. He was treated and released, a University of Chicago Hospitals spokesman said.
Lopez said charges will be filed against the teen who brought the gun to school, but Chicago Police had no further details.
"How the weapon got into the building obviously is a main concern for us," said Michael Vaughn, a spokesman for Chicago Public Schools. Students are required to go through metal detectors at the school's main entrances, he said.
School administrators indicated the teen who brought the gun to school arrived later in the school day, Vaughn said. But students are supposed to be screened any time they enter the building, he said.
School officials planned to interview the students involved and review footage from the school's extensive surveillance camera system, Vaughn said. Additional security measures would be used to help screen students at the building's entrances, he said.
After the gun discharged, the teen who brought it to school panicked, ran outside and dumped the gun near the front of the building, Lopez said. A Chicago police officer assigned to the school confronted the student as he re-entered the building, and the student led him to the gun, police said.
Lopez said there was no magazine, or clip, in the gun, and the student may not have realized there was a bullet in the chamber.
It was the second shooting on school property in less than a month. On March 22, two students standing in the parking lot were shot and wounded after a car pulled into the lot and an occupant opened fire, Bond said.
Both students recovered from their wounds, Bond said. No arrests were made.
The academy, which opened in 1940, has about 2,000 students in grades 9-12. Students enter a three-year vocational career path in their sophomore year, with "majors" such as accounting, cosmetology, graphic arts and carpentry, according to the school's website.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
