By Bill Hanna
Star-Telegram Staff Writer

ENNIS --A 16-year-old Ennis High School sophomore who fatally shot himself in a classroom Tuesday was being treated by a psychiatrist, Ennis Police Chief Dale Holt said Wednesday.

The student, Jay Douglas Goodwin, held a teacher and a female student hostage for several minutes before firing a shot across the room and then shooting himself.

Holt said investigators do not know whether Goodwin was taking any prescription medications, but they are consulting with his psychiatrist.

Goodwin was the third Ennis High School student to commit suicide this year. Investigators said they believe that there is no connection between Goodwin's death and the other two suicides, but Holt said one of the other students who killed himself was under the care of a psychiatrist and taking medication.

"I don't have any explanation for what happened here," Holt said. "We are just looking at some way to prevent this from happening again."

Ann Blake Tracy, executive director of the International Coalition for Drug Awareness in Salt Lake City, said Goodwin's behavior is similar to other suicidal youths who were taking prescription drugs.

"The standoff at the school, the holding of hostages and beginning to shoot and then turning around and shooting himself -- that fits the profile," said Tracy, author of `Prozac: Panacea or Pandora.'

Goodwin, who was the grandson of Ennis school board President Ivan Goodwin, enrolled in Ennis High School in fall 1999 after moving from Augusta, Ga. His parents were divorced and he and his father lived with his grandparents, police said.

Goodwin did not have a special relationship with the girl who was held in the classroom, Holt said.

"In his mind, they were boyfriend-girlfriend, but she didn't see it that way," he said. "In fact, she had a boyfriend."

Also on Wednesday, police released the tapes of 911 calls and radio transmissions from the school.

The first account was received at 12:06 p.m. from a campus police officer who radioed that a student had barricaded himself in a classroom. At 12:09 p.m., one of the officers reported "shots fired, shots fired" from inside the classroom.

For several minutes there was confusion as officers tried to ascertain what had happened in the classroom. It wasn't until 12:16 p.m., when teacher Andrea Webb called from the classroom, that authorities knew what had happened.

"I'm Andrea Webb. I'm in 106. My room was taken hostage by a student with a gun," she says on the tape. "I have all of the kids out of my room but one. I have the other girl behind my desk on the floor. Shots have been fired. I believe the student has committed suicide."

Dispatcher: "You're in the room with him?"

Webb: "Yes."

Dispatcher: "OK. Are you hearing any noise at all?"

Webb: "No. Not at all. Please hurry."

After several exchanges between the dispatcher and Webb, officers entered the classroom and called for paramedics.

Webb, who has taught for 30 years, was called a hero on Wednesday by school officials. They said she was too upset to talk about the shooting.

The teacher, who is married and writes in her spare time, had attended school training sessions on dealing with emergencies. But Ennis school district spokesman Glenn Hyde said Webb acted on her own instincts.

"You can't prepare, you can't plan for what happened in that classroom," Hyde said.

Bill Hanna, (817 390-7698
billhanna@star-telegram.com