Ocala, Fl. — A student was wounded and a suspect is in custody after a shooting Friday morning at a high school in Ocala, Florida, according to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office.
The student was shot in the ankle, said Kevin Christian, Marion Public Schools spokesman. It’s the 20th US school shooting this year.
Authorities asked residents to avoid the area of Forest High School, which was surrounded by emergency vehicles and buses transporting students away from the scene.
As Forest High students were being bused to First Baptist Church of Ocala to be reunited with their parents, students at some 2,500 schools around the country were walking out of their classrooms as part of the National School Walkout against gun violence.
Forest High was to participate, according to a Thursday post on the school’s Twitter account.
School walkouts were canceled districtwide in Marion County after the Forest High shooting, according to school board member Nancy Stacy.
The Ocala shooting comes more than two months since the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where 17 students and teachers were killed. Parkland students are participating in the national walkout.
Forest High, which was ranked as one of the best high schools in the nation by U.S. News & World Report, has about 2,100 students. Ocala is about 65 miles northwest of Orlando.
The-CNN-Wire ™ & © 2018 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved. (Photo: CNN)
