Panama City school board shootings
2010 American attempted murder and suicide
On December 14, 2010, a hostage-taking and shooting occurred in Panama City, Florida. During a meeting of the Bay District School board, attendant Clay Allen Duke took six board members, including the superintendent, at gunpoint over the dismissal of Duke's wife from her teaching position. After a brief verbal exchange, Duke opened fire on the board, missing all of them, at which point he was shot several times by Head of Safety and Security Mike Jones. Duke then fatally shot himself.
Much of the episode and its immediate aftermath were recorded by local television news stations WMBB and WJHG-TV. The video was subsequently uploaded to video sharing sites, including YouTube.
Incident
At 2:00 p.m. on December 14, 2010, Duke stood up during a school board meeting in Panama City, Florida, and said, "I have a motion." He then promptly pulled out a can of red spray paint and sprayed a "V" inside a circle, as seen in the graphic novel V for Vendetta and film V for Vendetta. He then drew a 9mm Smith & Wesson 469 semiautomatic pistol, causing other staff near the bench and audience members to duck for cover. He aimed the gun at the board members and used it to point to two women, saying, "You may leave, and you may leave...the women can leave...The six men stay, everyone else leave."
After the room was evacuated, Duke told the board members he was upset that his wife had been fired from her job as an English teacher in the Panama City district. The superintendent, Bill Husfelt, after an approximately four-minute discussion, tried to negotiate with Duke, saying, "I'm the only one who signs [the papers], will you let them [the other board members] go?" Duke denied his requests to allow the other board members to leave, saying, "They're part of it."
Duke threatened to kill himself, and Husfelt argued with Duke about his threat, saying, "For what?
“Panama City school board shootings” enters the record as 2010 American attempted murder and suicide. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Panama, City and school can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4618149. Authority coordinates are 30.174, -85.664. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2010.
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