LAKE MARY, FL — A 17-year-old student at an Orlando-area high school shot and killed herself Wednesday morning in the school auditorium after asking to leave her class to use the restroom, Seminole County Sheriff Dennis Lemma said at a news conference.

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The sheriff said he doesn’t believe any Lake Mary High School students or staff witnessed the shooting, which occurred around 8 a.m., 10 minutes after the teen had asked to be excused from her first period class.

“It appears that she went out of her way to do it in an area where nobody else was at,” Lemma said.

Two school resource officers and a school nurse responded within minutes of hearing the single gunshot, but were unable to revive the teen, Lemma said, according to a CBS News report.

The school was briefly placed on lockdown, and grief counselors were made available to students and staff. Thursday classes were canceled, as were athletic and extracurricular activities on Wednesday and Thursday, The Orlando Sentinel reported. The counselors will be available on Thursday, even though classes won’t be held. Students who wanted to do so were allowed to leave school for the day Wednesday.

The student’s name hasn’t been released, but investigators are in touch with her family, the sheriff said at the news conference.

“We want to be there for the family and the students and the teachers as they grieve, and we want to find out where the gun came from,” Lemma said. “We want to find out how the student got possession of the gun.”

The sheriff also encouraged anyone struggling with depression or mental health issues to reach out for help. Suicide is the second-leading cause of death among adolescents ages 10-19, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Suicides among young people had declined for several years, but soared by 12 percent between 2013 and 2016, the CDC said in a report last year.

“Let’s do what we can to make sure we’re talking about this,” Lemma said. “Lets not turn a blind eye to it, and prevent situations like this from ever happening again.

“We’ve got to be involved, we’ve got to be connected and we’ve got to minimize the likelihood that children are going to hurt themselves,” he continued, emphasizing “there are services, and love, and guidance, and faith and people who would do everything that they can.”

Students — and others — who are in crisis are encouraged to call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at (800) 273-8255 — or 800-273-TALK. They may also contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741.

The sound of a gunshot and an announcement of a code red lockdown over the PA system by Principal Cindy Nelson unnerved students in the state that saw one of the worst school shootings in recent memory with the 2018 Valentine’s Day Massacre, which left 17 people dead, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas HIgh School in Parkland.

Drake Branly, 19, a senior at the high school, told the Orlando Sentinel that he wondered if the code red lockdown announcement was in response to a school shooter.

“With the recent events, it’s really hard. … I just don’t feel safe in school,” he said. “When I hear a code red like that and I hear [the administrator] over the intercom feeling very scared and concerned… I was afraid. It’s scary that that’s what it’s like nowadays, to have to look over your shoulder at school.”

The student’s suicide is the second at a Florida high school in a year and a half, news station WESH reported. A 17-year-old fatally shot himself at Lake Minneola High School in central Florida in November 2017.