Crime & Justice

Virginia School Was Warned 3 Times That 6-Year-Old Had a Gun: Lawyer

‘COULD NOT BE BOTHERED’

Administrators ignored three warnings from staff and students before 25-year-old Abigail Zwerner was shot, according to the teacher’s attorney.

Police respond to a shooting that injured a teacher at Richneck Elementary in Newport News, Virginia, on Jan. 6, 2023.
Billy Schuerman/Getty

Administrators at Richneck Elementary School dismissed three warnings from staff and students that a 6-year-old student had a gun before he shot his first-grade teacher, according to attorneys. “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,” said Diane Toscano at a press conference, announcing a lawsuit against the district on behalf of the wounded teacher, 25-year-old Abigail Zwerner. According to Toscano, in the hours leading up to the attack, a teacher searched the first-grader’s backpack before reporting to the main office that they suspected the child had a weapon in his pocket. Then a student at recess claimed to have seen the gun before the child threatened to shoot them. A final employee requested to search the boy prior to the attack but was “told to wait the situation out because the school day was almost over,” Toscano said.

Read it at The New York Times

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