Teenager commits suicide at high school

Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, December 12, 2006

ERDENHEIM, Pa. – An 11th-grader despondent that his parents might curtail his after-school activities because of poor grades took a rifle to school Tuesday and shot himself to death between classes in a hallway, authorities said.

The gunman, Shane Joseph Halligan, 16, had no intention of hurting anyone else in the 9 a.m. shooting at Springfield Township High School, Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce Castor Jr. said.

Halligan was an Eagle Scout and a volunteer firefighter whose poor grades had led his parents on Monday to threaten to cut back on his after-school activities, Castor said.

A security camera showed the boy taking the gun out of a bag and shooting into the ceiling, said Randall Hummel, the township police chief. Students in the hallway scrambled for cover, and the teenager walked to another hallway out of view, then shot himself, Hummel said.

Halligan left a note for his family, but authorities did not disclose its contents.