Authorities said the 15-year-old opened fire before classes began at a small Comal ISD campus near Bulverde.
BULVERDE, Texas — A 15-year-old student shot a teacher at Hill Country College Preparatory High School on Monday morning and then fatally shot himself, authorities said, sending the campus into lockdown and forcing students to reunite with parents at a nearby middle school.
No other injuries were reported. The teacher was taken to a San Antonio hospital, and officials said Monday afternoon that her condition had not been released. The Comal County Sheriff’s Office said the shooting happened before the school day fully began and that investigators were still working to determine a motive, trace the gun and reconstruct what led to the attack at the small college preparatory campus in Comal Independent School District.
The first public signs of the crisis came at 8:34 a.m., when the school said it had gone into lockdown. An online bell schedule showed classes were set to start at 8:55 a.m., placing the gunfire just before the regular school day. Sheriff Mark Reynolds said in an afternoon briefing that multiple agencies responded and that the situation was contained quickly. By then, the student was dead at the scene and the wounded teacher was already on her way to a hospital in San Antonio. In a message to families, Principal Julie Wiley said law enforcement officers were on campus, the building was secure and the threat had been contained. Reynolds later said investigators believe the student shot himself after shooting the teacher. Officials did not publicly identify either person on Monday, and they did not say where inside the campus the shooting began.
What authorities did say left major questions unanswered. Reynolds said investigators were trying to learn where the firearm came from, whether anyone knew the student had access to it and what contact, if any, took place before the shooting. The sheriff’s office did not describe a motive, and officials did not say whether the teacher was the intended target or whether there had been earlier warning signs. Law enforcement also did not explain how many shots were fired. Students described the moments before the lockdown as sudden and chaotic. One student told local television that loud bangs came from a second-floor room, followed by screaming. Another said she heard several shots and yelling before a teacher rushed students inside a classroom. Those accounts, while still unverified by investigators, matched the broader official timeline of a brief but violent episode that ended before most families even knew there was danger on campus.
Students were bused to Bulverde Middle School, where parents gathered in long lines to wait for reunification. Some stood quietly, others prayed, and many kept checking their phones for updates from the district and sheriff’s office. Jesse Lopez, a parent waiting for his daughter, told local television it would be hard to persuade her to return to class after the shooting. He said his daughter has autism and would be frightened by what happened. Another parent, Sarah Valdez, said the lockdown alert sent families into immediate panic because they had no way to know how large the threat was or whether their children were safe. By afternoon, officials were stressing that there was no longer an active threat, but that reassurance came after hours of confusion for parents trying to reach teenagers who had been locked down, moved by bus and then processed through reunification.
The campus itself is an unusual one for the area. Hill Country College Preparatory High School is a school of choice within Comal ISD, with a stated focus on academics, college readiness and STEAM coursework, including computer science, cybersecurity and engineering. The school opened in August 2020 and serves grades nine through 12. Federal education data list it as a small high school in rural Comal County, and district materials describe it as a specialized campus designed for students seeking an academically intensive program. The school sits at 3615 Mustang Vista near Bulverde. A statement from the City of Bulverde noted that the campus is near the city but outside city limits, which is why the sheriff’s office and the Texas Department of Public Safety took the lead on the response and investigation. That detail helped explain why county and state officials, rather than city police, became the main public voices as the day unfolded.
By late Monday, the case had shifted from emergency response to evidence gathering. Reynolds said investigators would continue interviewing witnesses, reviewing the scene and tracing the source of the gun. No criminal charges were announced Monday, and officials did not say whether any adult could face scrutiny over how the weapon was obtained or stored. The teacher’s medical status was still unclear, and authorities had not released information on possible surgery, prognosis or whether she had spoken with investigators. The sheriff said his office would keep a presence at the campus as needed while the district worked through the immediate aftermath. Comal ISD said families would continue receiving updates, and local reporting said the district had also begun sharing support resources for students and staff shaken by the shooting. In the absence of a stated motive, the next official milestones are likely to be forensic findings, interviews and a fuller account from investigators once families have been notified and evidence has been processed.
The emotional weight of the day was plain far from the crime scene. Parents arrived at the middle school carrying photo identification and fear, unsure whether they would be met with a routine pickup or the kind of life-changing news that follows school violence. Reynolds acknowledged that strain when he told reporters that what happened was something no community ever wants to face, even though agencies prepare for it. Wiley’s note to families tried to strike the same balance, confirming that students and staff were in a secure area while recognizing how hard the news would be to hear. For a campus built around high achievement and future planning, the school day instead became a sequence of alarms, police vehicles, hurried phone calls and long waits for children to come through reunification doors.
As of Monday evening, officials said there was no active threat, the teacher remained hospitalized and investigators still had not explained why the student opened fire. The next public updates are expected from the sheriff’s office and Comal ISD as the weapon trace, witness interviews and campus recovery continue.
Author note: Last updated March 30, 2026.