A Utah teacher who accidentally shot a toilet in a school restroom last month resigned on Thursday and has been charged with a misdemeanor, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.
Documents detailing the charges against 39-year-old Michelle Ferguson-Montgomery alleged that she misled police about the Sept. 11 incident, the Tribune reported.
According to the paper, police responded to Westbrook Elementary School after Ferguson-Montgomery’s 9mm pistol allegedly discharged in a school restroom. The sixth-grade teacher was injured after the gun fired into a toilet and fragments from the toilet and possibly the bullet struck her lower left calf, Granite School District spokesman Ben Horsley told the Tribune.
Documents obtained by the paper revealed that Ferguson-Montgomery told police the pistol fell out of her hip holster while she was in the stall and accidentally fired. However, the Tribune reported that her statement conflicted with what investigators determined occurred.
Detective Randy Porter of the Granite School District Police said that Ferguson-Montgomery changed her account when confronted with this inconsistency.
“The defendant then reported that after entering the stall, she removed the firearm from the holster and placed it on top of the toilet-paper dispenser,” he said.
Porter reportedly said in the statement that Ferguson-Montgomery admitted to using the restroom and said the gun slipped when she was trying to put it back in her holster.
“The defendant stated that she did not remember pulling the trigger,” Porter said, “but conceded that is what likely happened.”
Ferguson-Montgomery had a permit to carry a concealed weapon; however, she was disciplined on Wednesday for violating the school district’s policy, Horsley told the Tribune.
Horsley told the paper that Ferguson-Montgomery was not terminated and that she had resigned and taken a job closer to her home.
