U.S. News
Metal detectors to be installed in school district where 6-year-old shot teacher
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:
- Metal detectors will be installed in every school in the Virginia city where a 6-year-old boy shot and wounded his teacher on Friday.
- The gun used by the child was legally purchased by his mother, police said.
- Police Chief Steve Drew said the “shooting was not accidental” but “intentional.”
School officials announced Thursday that every school in a Virginia city will have to install metal detectors after a 6-year-old boy shot and wounded his teacher last week.
The Newport News School Board received permission Wednesday to purchase 90 walk-through metal detectors and has already begun ordering them, said board chair Lisa Surles-Law. The first state-of-the-art detectors will be installed at Richneck Elementary School, where first-grade teacher Abigial Zwerner was shot.
Superintendent George Parker said on Monday that the city already uses metal detectors and random searches in high schools and middle schools, but not at elementary buildings.
Surles-Law said last week’s shooting changed that.
“The time is now to put metal detectors in all of our schools,” she said at a news conference.
The Jan. 6 shooting occurred as Zwerner was teaching her class. Authorities said there was no warning and no struggle before the 6-year-old boy pointed the 9mm handgun at Zwerner and fired one round.
The bullet pierced Zwerner’s hand and struck her chest. The 25-year-old rushed her students out of the classroom before being rushed to the hospital. She has improved and is listed in stable condition, authorities said.
Police Chief Steve Drew thought the boy intentionally shot the teacher and said there was more than one round in the gun.
“This shooting was not accidental. It was intentional,” he said.
A judge will determine what’s next for the child, who is being held at a medical facility following an emergency custody order. Experts said the boy is unlikely to be charged, but his parents could be criminally liable depending on if they properly secured the gun.
Drew added that the child used his mother’s gun, which had been purchased legally. It’s not yet determined how he gained access to the weapon.
In Virginia, a law prohibits leaving a loaded gun where a child under 14 can access it. It is a misdemeanor crime punishable by a maximum one-year prison sentence and a $2,500 fine.
Source: USA Today
Andrew Casler
January 14, 2023 at 6:35 pm
You might say “six years old his brain isn’t developed and he didn’t know what he was doing”. At 6 … I never would have imagined shooting somebody. I don’t know what the answer is or if there even is one.
Mike Tracy
January 14, 2023 at 7:00 pm
I don’t believe a six year old kid in his right mind even possesses the hate or will to kill somebody unles it is instilled in the child from a parent or older sibling. The kid’s mother is at fault one way or another, especially by leaving a firearm accessible to a child. In the very least, the kids’ mother should face jail time just for reckless endangerment. It wouldn’t surprise me if the kid’s mother put him up to it, and if so, she should go to prison for attempting a murder.
Janet Fabiano
January 14, 2023 at 7:17 pm
You are dealing with a six year old child!!! Do not lose sight of this poor child’s mental acuity! He is a baby!!!!
PaulDF
January 14, 2023 at 10:43 pm
The sick and twisted reality is that a SIX YEAR OLD CHILD is seen, by some, as capable of deciding what “gender” they are ~ and incredibly ~ doctors can and do prescribe chemical castrating agents based on those decisions. So our societal choice is this: Can a six year old not be held responsible for shooting someone, while at the same time responsible enough to decide their “gender”?
RSM4
January 14, 2023 at 7:26 pm
People don’t believe a young kid could do such a thing. Sadly, I have seen a law enforcement video where a 4 year old kid was in a car while the dad was being arrested for drugs. He shouted at his kid “Shoot them! Shoot the cops!”
The kid picked up a gun and got off two rounds as the cops were grabbing the gun away.
Robyn
January 14, 2023 at 8:19 pm
The child does not have the true ability to understand right from wrong at either 4 or 6! A parent yelling shoot them is just viewed as a command from a parent to child – the child doesn’t understand the consequences of “shoot them”! And the parent was being arrested for drugs im sure the father had already poisoned the child’s mine with “shooting cops”! Just like a dog a small child can learn commands without ever knowing the consequences! Hence why we have so many lunatics in our world today who think their violent actions against others is ok!
Genie Smith
January 14, 2023 at 7:32 pm
The child’s environment could have influences like violence on TV, violence in the home, etc. that created the idea to shoot someone. A 6 year old can become a violent, mean individual when there are strong negative influences in his life….just look at instances of very young children in third world countries being trained in violence.
John Carl Miller
January 15, 2023 at 10:45 am
The “Gun Cult” tendency of openly displaying guns in motion pictures or showing an actual shooting should be illegal where it can be accessed by children. An alien being looking down upon us would have to believe we are actually TRAINING child TV and movie watchers to commit gun violence.
Foofer
January 14, 2023 at 8:15 pm
Say… I’m just wondering… Do you think you can add a few MORE ad’s in your content????????????????? That way, it would take me 1/2 an hour rather than 30 minutes to actually find, see and try to read your story.. ya know?? Boy!! It SHORE would be appreeeeciated…ehh??
Robert Harper
January 14, 2023 at 11:13 pm
All kids will be having to empty their pockets and belt buckles and be subjected to about the same things that the passengers on an airline. I use a walker and the airline people took it away temporarily and wouldn’t even furnish a cane for me. It made me sick, and they don’t have barf bags available, a lady gave me her sack that had held a hamburger. The mentality of kids has changed, and the parents and the controlled teaching of the schools has caused it. When I was in grade school the kids and the teachers could take their guns to school in order to hunt for supper on the way home after school. We knew which end of a gun was the dangerous one. As for the kid that shot his teacher, the decision will be a hard one.
Patricia Ann Moody
January 15, 2023 at 7:00 am
Again, this issue is incomplete, this little killer( he meant to kill his teacher)! Is guilty! His mind is far from “SANE “., I do not even hear at least, “ ANY APOLOGY “, from this little lunatic! His mother, belongs in prison, the father also , for allowing her not to secure that weapon! She could have “TOLD “, that kid to kill that poor teacher, who has a family of her own! The authorities are taking this much too “LIKELY “, like All crimes in America! There is NO RESPECT, or orderly conduct in this United States! How did this kid “KNOW “, how to use a GUN, & aim right for her? He could have KiLLED the whole CLASS! Surety his mental case “MOTHER “, taught him to KILL! She is Sick, & needs to be “PUT AWAY “, the neighbors & others , KNOW who this Little DEMON is! Show the DAMN punks name, that’s America , PROTECT the KILLERS, age means SHIT! If he can handle a gun , like a Mobster, then show his name! ! Or are the parents “ GANGSTERS!, America, the “LAND of the DRUG ADDICTS & the Mentally INSANE! That’s what this LAME Government has turned it into, even past Administrations! We live in “ FEAR, our children & families!!
John J
January 15, 2023 at 8:57 am
The mother should face charges for not securing the gun