Virginia School Not Bothered to Stop Boy with Gun, He Shot His Teacher 

By Staff, Agencies 

Concerned US teachers and employees warned administrators at a Virginia elementary school three times that a six-year-old boy had a gun and was threatening other students in the hours before he shot and wounded a teacher, “but the administration could not be bothered” and didn’t call police, remove the boy from class or lock down the school, a lawyer for the teacher said.

Diane Toscano, an attorney for Abigail Zwerner, told reporters on Wednesday she had notified the Newport News school board that the 25-year-old Richneck elementary school teacher plans to sue the school district over the 6 January shooting, which left Zwerner with serious injuries.

Toscano said: “On that day, over the course of a few hours, three different times – three times – school administration was warned by concerned teachers and employees that the boy had a gun on him at the school and was threatening people. But the administration could not be bothered.”

The school, which has been closed since the shooting, is scheduled to reopen next week. Karen Lynch, a longtime principal in the Newport News school district, has been named as an “administrator on special assignment” at Richneck, Lynch said in a note to parents on Monday.

On 6 January about 12.30pm, Toscano said, a teacher told administrators she had taken it upon herself to search the boy’s book bag but warned that she thought he had the gun in his pocket. “The administrator downplayed the report from the teacher and the possibility of a gun, saying – and I quote – ‘Well, he has little pockets,’” Toscano said.

Toscano said that after 1pm, another boy who was “crying and fearful” told his teacher the other student had shown him the gun and threatened to shoot him, and that the teacher reported that to administrators.

Another employee asked for permission to search the boy but “was told to wait the situation out because the school day was almost over”, Toscano said.

Zwerner told school administrators around 11.15am that the boy had threatened to beat up another child.
The shooting stunned Newport News, a city of about 185,000 70 miles south-east of Richmond.