Virginia: school chief ‘in shock’ after teacher shot by student, six

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The superintendent of the public school district in Newport News, Virginia, has called for increased gun control while condemning a shooting in which a first-grade student deliberately shot his teacher.

In a news conference, the superintendent George Parker said he was “disheartened” and “in shock” after the attack left a Richneck elementary school teacher with “life-threatening injuries”.

The local television news outlet WTKR published a report Saturday citing multiple anonymous sources who identified the wounded first-grade teacher as Abby Zwerner.

Parker on Saturday said the shooting showed how “we need to educate our children and we need to keep them safe”.

He added: “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.

“I cannot control access to weapons. My teachers cannot control access to weapons … 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.”

According to Parker, Richneck elementary will be closed through at least Monday as it addresses “the mental health of our staff and our students”.

The teacher identified as Zwerner was shot in a classroom and was said to have “some improvement” as of Friday afternoon, the Newport News police chief, Steve Drew, told reporters.

Police arrested the six-year-old boy accused of shooting his teacher.

“We have been in contact with [local prosecutors] and some other entities to help us best get services to this young man,” said Drew, who described the shooting as “not … an accidental shooting”.

No one else was hurt in the shooting, and students were returned to their parents once the campus was deemed to be safe again.

Authorities had not immediately determined how the child suspect managed to obtain the gun, police said.

Under Virginia law, six-year-olds cannot be tried as adults, the Associated Press reported. They are also considered too young to be committed to the juvenile justice department’s custody if they are found guilty of any criminal charges against them.

Nevertheless, a juvenile judge is able to strip away custody from a parent of such a child and place that child under the care of the state social services department.