An official at Marinette high school called the authorities just before 4pm local time to say a student had taken over a classroom. A choral teacher, Bonita Weydt, said she was talking with a teacher in another classroom when the headmaster, Corry Lambie, came in and told them both to leave immediately.
"I said, 'Corry, what's going on?' and he said, 'Get out of the building,'" Weydt said.
Eric Burmeister, a Marinette county emergency official, said parents were being asked to go to the county courthouse.
A woman at a hair salon across the street from the school told Reuters by telephone that the school was surrounded by police cars and fire engines and the car park nearby was filled with people, many of them students.
Marinette's police chief, Jeff Skorik, said the hostage taker is a male student with a handgun and is using a female teacher as a liaison to talk with a hostage negotiating team inside the school. The team has yet to speak directly with the student.
Negotiators do not yet know what his demands are. The student does not have any history with the police, Skorik said.
"We have no idea as far as motivations at this point," he added.
The high school has about 800 students, according to its website. Marinette, a town of 11,400 people, is about 30 miles north of Green Bay.
Marinette Hostage Situation
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