photo courtesy of Associated Press
On January 7, A six-year-old student has shot and critically injured a 1st-grade teacher during an altercation. Thankfully, no students were injured when the shots were fired at 2 PM during the school day at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia, as reported by Aljazeera.
Although Abby Zwerner, 25, sustained life-threatening injuries, her condition had slightly improved. At this time, police have not found where the student got the handgun, and they have been taken into custody as the shooting was reportedly not an accident.
Newport News Police Chief Steve Drew said, “We did not have a situation where someone was going around the school shooting. We have a situation in one particular location where a gunshot was fired.” He continued to say that they were attempting to find the best course of action for the six-year-old, “We have been in contact with our commonwealth’s attorney and some other entities to help us best get services to this young man,” Drew finished.
Virginia law prevents a child as young as six from being tried as an adult, regardless of the intentions behind the shooting, and it’s also too young to be placed into juvenile.
Boston Northeastern University criminologists assured the public that a school shooting perpetrated by someone this young is incredibly rare.
The superintendent of the area’s public school, Dr. George Parker, sat down for a news conference following the shocking shooting.
“We need to keep guns out of the hands of our young people. I cannot control access to weapons,” Dr. Parker expressed, “My teachers cannot control access to weapons.”
He added, “Today, our students got a lesson in gun violence and what guns can do to disrupt not only an educational environment but also a family, a community.”
“I’m in shock, and I’m in awe, and I’m disheartened.”
A student’s mom, Brittany Gregory, found out about the shooting via a neighbor who saw the incident on the local news. She said the boy Zwerner was her son’s favorite teacher.
Gregory also shared that Zwerner told the children to run from the class as gunfire erupted, and that her son has had nightmares since the shooting.
“He normally sleeps in his own room, but the night of the shooting he came into my room. He was talking in his sleep, saying we got to get out of here,” she told the New York Post.
Gregory is planning to place her child in therapy.