Teacher has narrow escape from bullet

Press, 19 February 1986, Page 27

Teacher has narrow escape from bullet

PA Auckland A boy shooting at birds nearly killed a Manurewa schoolteacher on Monday as she sat with 30 pupils in a classroom. Pieces of the building’s wall sprayed into the hair of the teacher, Mrs Daphne Jenner, as the

bullet whistled only centimetres past her head. Children in the Manurewa High School Form 4 Maori studies class heard at least two bangs within seconds of the bullet blasting through the wall about 1.50 p.m. The associate principal of the school, Mr Zane

Kidd, ran to the classroom to find a stunned Mrs Jenner and her pupils unsure of what had happened. Mr Kidd, fearing that a gunman could still be outside the building somewhere, sent the pupils out of the room. he police surrounded a house in Browns Road, Manurewa, after tracing the path of the bullet by matching up holes in the classroom. Chief Inspector Barry Davies, head of the Papakura police area, said a boy walked down a house driveway and the police questioned him before finding bullets and a .223 rifle in the house. The police believed two shots had been fired. The boy told the first police on the scene that he had been shooting at birds near a gum tree between the house and the high school. Mr Davies said that from the angle of the shot which carried into the classroom, Mrs Jenner had been in “quite a dangerous position.” Mrs Jenner* a Manurewa mother of four, would not discuss the incident She was sent home from the school early. A boy, aged 15, was arrested and charged with discharging a firearm with reckless disregard for the safety of others. He will appear in the Papakura Children and Young Persons Court tomorrow.