1993 East Carter High School shooting

On Monday, January 18, 1993, a shooting occurred at East Carter High School in Grayson, Kentucky. At approximately 2:45 p.m., 17-year-old student Gary Scott Pennington entered his seventh-period English classroom carrying a .38-caliber revolver that belonged to his father, concealed in a duffel-bag-style backpack. He fired at his teacher, Deanna McDavid; his first shot missed, and McDavid screamed, "What are you doing, Scott?" His second shot struck her in the forehead and was fatal. Some students initially believed the incident was a staged skit connected to McDavid's drama club.

Head custodian Marvin Hicks and social studies teacher Jack Calhoun entered the classroom after hearing the shots. Pennington fatally shot Hicks in the abdomen and pointed the gun at Calhoun without firing. Witnesses said Hicks pushed a female student out of the way before he was shot. Pennington then held the remaining students hostage, with some recalling threats against other students and others recalling statements that he intended to kill himself. He released students in small groups, with the final five hostages leaving the classroom at 3:01 p.m. Pennington then walked out and surrendered to police officers waiting in the hallway.

Deanna McDavid, born January 19, 1944, in Olive Hill, Kentucky, was a senior English teacher and drama club director at East Carter High School. She had previously taught in Akron, Ohio, for 14 years before returning to Carter County in 1981, and lived in Grayson with her husband and three children. Marvin Hicks, born in 1941 in Olive Hill, Kentucky, had worked as head custodian at the school for nine years and lived in Olive Hill with his wife.

Pennington had moved with his family from Elliott County to Carter County in August 1992 and reportedly resented the move. His family experienced poverty, lacking adequate plumbing and electricity; his father was an unemployed former coal miner receiving disability payments. Pennington had a strong academic record, including participation in academic competitions from an early age. He reportedly developed a grudge against McDavid after she gave him a "C" on an essay about Stephen King's novel "Rage," whose plot concerns a student who takes his class hostage; McDavid had raised concerns about his writing with colleagues. Pennington later said he did not personally dislike McDavid but intended to kill two people to become eligible for the death penalty.

A Carter County grand jury indicted Pennington on two counts of second-degree murder and 22 counts of kidnapping on June 15, 1993. The trial venue was moved twice due to difficulty seating an impartial jury. Opening arguments began February 9, 1995; Pennington pleaded guilty but mentally ill, was convicted, and on February 28, 1995, was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for 25 years. He was later convicted in a separate case of first-degree assault after an April 2014 incident at Kentucky State Penitentiary in which he seriously assaulted a contract food service employee; in July 2015 he received an additional 20-year sentence for that offense.