Principal suspended over unannounced school shooting 'drill' which saw frightened students and staff running for cover

A middle school principal has been suspended terrifying students and staff by staging a shooter 'drill' that involved police officers entering classrooms with guns drawn.

Jacquelyn Moore, principal of Jewett Middle Academy Magnet in Winter Haven, Florida, was removed this week pending an internal investigation.

During last week's drill school officers went from classroom to classroom, with guns drawn, pretending to look for active shooters.

The station reported that the school resource officer involved in the drill was carrying a loaded Glock .45-caliber pistol, while a patrol officer was holding an AR-15 rifle, though it was not loaded, reports WTSP 10 News in Tampa Bay.

Some of the students panicked while others hid and ducked out of the way.

'We actually thought that someone was going to come in there and kill us,' 7th-grader Lauren Marionneauxtold Fox 13.

School district Superintendent Kathryn Leroy said that she never ordered an 'active shooter drill be performed with students present and officers having weapons in their hands.'

She publicly apologized and promised it would never happen again.

From now on, any time there is a lockdown drill at school there will be an announcement, and parents will be notified, the school district said.

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