By Mitch Borden
Officials at Ector County Independent School District are still looking into what exactly caused hundreds of students to evacuate Permian High School in Odessa on October 10h.
That morning, Ector County ISD received a phone call warning officials there was a student at the school with a gun. Police were soon dispatched and then, at around 10:20 a.m., students were in between classes when a fire alarm was pulled. That's when students fled the building.
The school district confirmed there was no active shooter, but police are still investigating and have not been able to confirm if a firearm started the panic.
A source close to the investigation told Marfa Public Radio that does not mean there wasn't a gun involved.
The police have interviewed multiple students and say the accounts vary, but many claim they saw a fellow student in possession of a gun. What makes it even harder to clear things up — Permian High School doesn’t have any surveillance cameras in the area this all happened.
As of now, it’s still unclear what caused students to flee the building and why the fire alarm was pulled in the first place. According to the source close to the investigation, the numerous eyewitness accounts point towards a student in possession of a firearm.
The evacuation of Permian High came just a day after another student on campus was found with a gun and was arrested. Additionally, a student at Ector County's Bowie Middle School was arrested earlier in the week for threatening to shoot up schools over snapchat.
An Ector County official said the district will reevaluate their security protocols after this most recent event at Permian High.
