Stronger security and a new school administration welcomes back Richneck Elementary School students back to class on Monday for the first time since a 6-year-old shot his teacher nearly a month ago.
New approved school administration Karen Lynch has announced that there will be emotional support services for the students and their families and staff while they wait for the school to re-open.
A week after the shooting the Newport News School Board has announced that there will be 90-walk through metal detectors will be placed in every school in the district. Both the school principal and the assistant principal have resigned and it was revealed that all the administrators were warned about the armed student three different times the day of the shooting.
The district’s superintendent, Dr. George Parker III, has been removed by the school board.
New additions to the school’s security, two new officers, have been assigned to the school. Before the shooting happened there was only one officer that was shared between the school and another school in the district.
The officer was not present the day of the shooting and left Abby Zwerner injured.
The police have said that the 1st grader brought a 9mm handgun to the school and shot Zwerner while she was teaching. The bullet hit her hand and struck her chest, but she hustled all her students out of the classroom before being rushed to the hospital.
Zwerner was in the hospital for two weeks and is now recovering at home. There has been a lawyer for Zwerner and that the young teacher will be suing the elementary school.
Her attorney has claimed that the administrators have failed to act after being told three times that the boy had brought a weapon to school.
“On that day, over the course of a few hours, three different times- three times that the school administration was warned by concerned teachers and employees that the boy had a gun on him at school and was threating people. But the administration couldn’t be bothered,” lawyer Diane Toscano said in a Wednesday news conference.
Several teachers, including Zwerner alerted administrators that the weapon was either in his backpack or pocket. One teacher told the administrators that the boy had threated to shoot a student while at recess.
Toscano said one teacher told the administrators around 12:30pm and the day of the shooting she searched his bag for the gun but believed in had been in his pocket the whole time. Shortly after a different teacher told the administrators about the boy after the 6-year-old showed him the gun and threatened to shoot him.
“The 6-year-old boy’s mother, who has not been identified, purchased the gun legally,” police said.
