Boy aged six detained after shooting teacher in US; Do you still want to go and Teach Abroad ?
Boy aged six detained after shooting teacher in US; Do you still want to go and Teach Abroad ?
The shooting happened at Richneck Elementary School in the city of Newport News
A six-year-old boy has been detained by police after shooting a teacher in the US state of Virginia, officers say.
The shooting happened shortly after 14:00 local time (19:00 GMT) at Richneck Elementary School in the city of Newport News, Chief Steve Drew said.
It is unclear how the child obtained the gun, but Mr Drew said the incident was not “an accidental shooting”.
The teacher – who has not been named and is said to be in her 30s – was left with life-threatening injuries.
She was taken to a local hospital and is being closely monitored by doctors. The incident took place in a first grade (ages six to seven) classroom after an altercation between the pair.
But Mr Drew emphasised that the shooting had been an isolated incident and stressed that officers “did not have a situation where someone was going around the school shooting”.
Officials said that while the school – which has around 550 students – had metal detection facilities, students were checked at random and not every child was inspected.
Police declined to name the weapon used in the incident, but said the boy had used a handgun.
School District Head Dr George Parker said officials would “be looking at any instance that may have occurred that may have caused this incident”.
“This is terrible, something like this should never occur,” Dr Parker added. “We want to ensure nothing like this happens again.”
He said the school would be closed on Monday, and pledged that students and parents would be offered support to help them deal with the traumatic event.
Mayor Phillip Jones – who took office just three days ago – said the shooting marked “a dark day for Newport News”.
“We’re going to learn from this and we’re going to come back stronger,” he told reporters.
Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin said he had offered assistance to local officials, adding that his administration was “ready to help in any way we can”.
“I am continuing to monitor the situation and am praying for the continued safety of all students and the community,” he wrote on Twitter.
Update on Teachers’ Health
Condition of teacher shot by child improving
Mayor Phillip Jones told the BBC that Ms Zwerner’s recovery was “trending in a positive direction”.
But he added that she remained in a critical condition after the incident.
Virginia law prevents six-year-olds being tried as adults. And the child would also be too young to be committed to the custody of the Department of Juvenile Justice if found guilty.
But a judge could revoke the parents’ custody of the boy and take him into the supervision of the state.
School District Superintendent George Parker said on Saturday that the shooting showed “we need to educate our children and we need to keep them safe”.
“We need the community’s support, continued support, to make sure that guns are not available to youth and I’m sounding like a broken record today, because I continue to reiterate that: that we need to keep the guns out of the hands of our young people,” he added.
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In our Country here, let’s ask, have you ever held a gun? Some of Us have not even seen Gun in real life before not to think of firing one.
African Schools have this harsh disciplinary measures in place which in recent times is being lowered a bit because of Abuse.
The whole society happens to be a caretaker and you dare not misbehave.
Many of you want to Teach Abroad, well this is an isolated case but you must prepare for the new students you’ll be meeting as they are not definitely like the ones here.
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Source; By Matt Murphy BBC News
