Investigators said the attack at Hill Country College Preparatory High School was contained quickly, but major questions remained unanswered Monday night.
COMAL COUNTY, Texas — A 15-year-old student died Monday after authorities said he shot a teacher at Hill Country College Preparatory High School near Bulverde and then turned the gun on himself, sending the campus into lockdown and a shaken school community into reunification and grief.
Authorities said the threat was contained within minutes, and no other injuries were reported, but the shooting left a teacher hospitalized and a school of about 250 students abruptly closed. By late Monday, investigators were still trying to determine how the student got the gun, what led to the shooting and whether the student had a direct connection to the wounded teacher.
Law enforcement was called to the campus at about 8:34 a.m., according to school and district updates. The school, at 3615 Mustang Vista, was locked down as deputies and other agencies moved onto the property. Comal County Sheriff Mark Reynolds later said the situation was contained “very, very quickly,” and officials told families there was no active shooter threat after the first response. The student was pronounced dead at the scene, and the teacher was taken to a hospital in San Antonio. Reynolds said during a Monday news conference that the teacher’s condition had not been released. Students were then taken by bus to Bulverde Middle School, where parents waited to reunite with them.
By Monday afternoon, officials were careful not to fill in gaps they could not yet prove. Reynolds said investigators were working to learn where the firearm came from and what relationship, if any, existed between the student and the teacher who was shot. Authorities did not publicly identify either person Monday. They also did not say where on campus the shooting happened or how many shots were fired. Even with those unknowns, the sheriff said the response plan worked as officers secured the campus and protected other students and staff. In messages to parents, Principal Julie Wiley said the building was secure and students and staff had been moved to a safe area while officers continued sweeping the campus.
The shooting hit a small, specialized campus that Comal ISD describes as a school of choice. Hill Country College Preparatory High School opened in 2020 and has promoted college, career and military readiness with a STEAM focus. Reynolds said about 250 students attend the school, making it far smaller than many traditional high schools in fast-growing Comal County. That scale appeared to shape the reaction outside the school and at the reunification site, where families quickly recognized one another and waited for word from children, classmates and staff members. For many parents, the shock came not only from the violence itself but from the setting: a newer campus marketed around academic opportunity and close-knit culture.
School leaders moved quickly into the next phase of response after the lockdown ended. Wiley told families there would be no classes Tuesday, March 31, to give students and staff time to process what happened. Counselors were scheduled to be available from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday at Mammen Family Public Library in Bulverde. Wiley also said vehicles and personal belongings left on campus would remain secured until further notice, with additional instructions to come later. Reynolds said deputies would keep a presence on campus as needed while the investigation continued, and he said officials were focused both on the criminal inquiry and on supporting people affected by the shooting.
Outside the reunification site, the emotional weight of the day was already clear. Parent Sarah Valdez told KSAT that she called her son after getting the lockdown alert, even though she knew students were not supposed to be on their phones. Another parent, Jesse Lopez, said he worried about how his daughter would handle returning to class after the shooting. Their comments reflected the immediate reality officials were also confronting: even after the scene was secured, the disruption would not end with the last police briefing. The campus had become both an active investigation site and the center of a community trying to understand how a school day turned into a deadly emergency.
As of early Tuesday, the student was dead, the teacher remained hospitalized and investigators had not released a motive. The next public milestone was the district’s counseling window on March 31 as deputies and school officials continued piecing together what happened.
Author note: Last updated March 31, 2026.