A dispute over a student apparently prompted teachers at Emerson Elementary School in Compton to call out sick in support of their principal Tuesday.
Compton Unified School District officials confirmed the principal and teachers all called out sick but said they did not know why.
Someone who thinks they know the answer told KTLA reporter Mary Beth McDade that a boy pointed a BB gun at her young cousin two months ago.
She said one boy brought the BB gun to school and another pointed it at her cousin’s head.
“He was playing with a little girl or something and another boy walked up behind him and put it up to his head,” the woman said.
She told KTLA that both middle school-aged boys were disciplined but one returned to campus Monday.
“The teacher doesn’t want him here, the principal doesn’t want him here,” she said.
Parents said that when the boy returned with his mother on Monday, the mother berated the principal.
“Apparently what happened yesterday, there was an altercation between the parent of a kid and the principal, and the principal then quit,” a man who spoke to KTLA said.
A person answering phones at the school Tuesday said administrators and substitutes were called in to take care of the students but many children were picked up by parents after hearing about the situation.