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Substitute teacher arrested for possessing gun in North East ISD classroom, principal says

The middle school teacher was conducting active shooter training on her own without authorization, the school's principal says.

SAN ANTONIO — A substitute teacher brought a gun into a classroom Friday and was "conducting active shooter training" with students, a North East ISD middle school principal said.

According to a letter to parents, a student reported to Wood Middle School administration at about 1 p.m. Friday that the teacher may have a gun. The district's police department intervened in the classroom, detaining the teacher and searching them to find the gun.

The teacher, Shawn Wesley, 54, was arrested and accused of possessing a firearm on school grounds, San Antonio Police confirmed.

Students also told school leaders that the teacher was conducting active shooter training in at least one classroom without authority to do so.

Aniah Hammond attends Wood Middle School. The 13-year-old said she was in the class with the substitute teacher on Friday.

"Out of nowhere, she was like have you ever been in a lockdown drill," she said. "And she was like okay, I am going to take all you through it. "She put a kid in choke hold to demonstrate what we should do. And then she made us go into a closet to hide. We all went in there, and she didn't go in the closet with us. She stayed behind with the girl in the wheelchair."

Hammond said they were in the closet for about 5 minutes. The middle schooler says it kept going.

"She got like a big little stick and she put it in between the doors and grabbed me and said you can demonstrate this for us," Hammond said.

Hammond said the exercise lasted the entire fourth period, and says it made her feel uneasy.

"She just kept saying what we should do, how we should hurt the intruder. And like she picked random kids to go outside, and she locked the door because she had the key. She just gave me weird, weird, weird vibes."

Hammond said she didn't see the gun during class.

"She paranoid me and I knew something was wrong," she said. "I didn't know she was going to do that, but I knew she was off."

The teacher will not be allowed to return to the district as a substitute, said Brad Henze, the school's principal

Henze said what the teacher told students "is not supported or endorsed by NEISD."

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