A Bronx middle school was on edge Thursday as a new school year started one day after a teacher was hit by a bullet in his classroom – as the educator said it was “the last thing” he expected.
Special education teacher Jhairo Colon, 33, was clipped by a bullet of mystery origin that whizzed through a sixth-floor window at Middle School 391 on Webster Avenue Wednesday, a day before kids were scheduled to return to the building.
“I was setting up my classroom, and I heard a pop through the window,” the father-of-two said as he missed school for his recovery. “And all of a sudden, I was bleeding … but I didn’t know it until somebody in my classroom told me I was bleeding.”
Colon didn’t know what hit him — but then the pain started.
“I felt a sting, and then it started progressing into pain,” said Colon, whose right hand was stitched and bandaged. “I ran downstairs, and the EMTs came and they took me to the hospital. I got stitched up and I’m good to go.
“My hand burns a little,” he continued. “But I’ll be okay.”
The bizarre ordeal began just before noon, when gunshots tore through morning bustle and sent the bullet darting through Colon’s high window.
“I didn’t know what to think,” the teacher said. “It was just weird that I’m on top of the sixth floor — the last thing I’m thinking is a bullet coming through a window and hitting me. That’s the last thing I was expecting to happen.”
Cops have said the shooter didn’t seem to be targeting the school but there was an added police presence as safety agents stood guard for the school’s first day.
Many kids and parents were left shaken as they arrived Thursday morning.
“I am a little anxious about this,” said Jennifer Lara, a 33-year-old mom who was dropping off her 10-year-old daughter. “It is the beginning of the school year and they’ve already started. That is not a good sign.”
Jessica Guzman, a 39-year-old mother of an 11-year-old sixth grader, said it “does not make me feel safe.”
“I worry about her,” Guzman said. “I’m not going to let her walk home alone from school. I keep on thinking, ‘What if the kids were there?’
“Maybe it would be more dangerous because [the shooter] could’ve hit a student and maybe that student, God forbid, could’ve died,” she continued. “It’s on the sixth floor! It’s not even safe on the sixth floor?”
Children were worried, too.
“I want to change schools,” one 11-year-old said, her voice trembling as she expressed how nervous she was. “I don’t feel comfortable.”
Others weren’t keen on seeing all the cops outside — even though they were there to protect them.
“He’s nervous walking here, seeing all the police,” Crystal, a 35-year-old home health aide, said about her seventh grader. “I know it’s for his safety, but he doesn’t feel comfortable.”
A social worker named Beresia echoed their unhappiness, saying the shooting “should’ve never happened.”
But she advised parents to talk to their kids about it and gauge their feelings as they try to keep abreast of what’s happening.
“If a child isn’t comfortable, it’s not an environment to learn,” she said. “Find out about their anxiety levels, how they are feeling and address it right away. It’s unfortunate that this is the society that we live … [but] we have to make our kids feel empowered.”
Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark was also on-hand at the school’s opening — “just to make sure everybody is alright.”
“Everybody seems to be OK, thank God,” she said. “It could be a lot worse, so I am just so thankful that things worked out okay.”
“This is a place where you are supposed to be safe,” Clark continued, adding that her office was still investigating the shooting. “Bullets flying through windows should not happen.”
The DA said she spoke with the principal, who, in her words, was “concerned” but resilient.
“We’re going to get through it,” Clark said. “But we are still going to get to the bottom of it and hold whoever is responsible, accountable.”
One parent called the situation “not good.”
“I’m worried about their safety,” said Alexander Campbell, a 33-year-old dad who showed up with his two sons.
“Kids got to go to school. How are they supposed to be safe, how do we know they are going to be safe if stuff like this is going to be happening?”
One of his sons, 12-year-old Noel Alexander, felt the same way.
“I could have been inside the building if school started yesterday, when this happened,” the seventh grader said in a soft voice.
“And maybe I could be the one to get shot. That’s what makes me nervous.”
