A school principal was placed on administrative leave after witnesses said she held a disturbing active shooter drill at a San Gabriel elementary school.
The incident happened at Washington Elementary on Wednesday and involved Nina Denson, a woman who joined the school as principal in Fall 2023.
Children and parents are upset at what they say was an inappropriate series of actions by Denson during the lockdown drill.
“She proceeded to walk around campus and pretended to shoot people she saw using finger movements and banging on windows,” said Jennifer Chavez, a parent. “From what I heard, she said to one of the students, ‘Boom. You’re dead.’”
Some of the children who witnessed the principal’s actions were as young as 4 years old, parents said.
“Oh he was really upset,” Chavez said of her son, who is in first grade. “The one shocking, surprising thing he said as a 6-year-old was, ‘I’m just really glad none of my friends died.’”
According to Jim Symonds, superintendent of the San Gabriel Unified School District, the safety drill was not authorized.