The horrific news from Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn. is yet another reminder that no school is immune to the carnage caused by guns. During the 28 years that I taught at the same high school in the Los Angeles Unified School District, I experienced only one remotely related episode, but it left an indelible imprint.

In the middle of the spring semester in 1991, a student checked into my English class from another school. He sat in the back of the room for about a week or so without uttering a word. Then one day, the assistant principal placed in the boxes of all teachers a notice that the boy had been arrested. He had pulled a .25 caliber gun out of his pocket while riding on the school bus at the end of the day. The gun accidentally discharged and struck a girl in the right hip. The bus driver immediately stopped the bus and took the gun away from the boy before calling the paramedics, the Los Angeles Police Department and the LAUSD police.

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