A US teacher who was shot and injured by a 6-year-old student announced on Wednesday that she would sue the school’s administration, which has repeatedly ignored the threat posed by the child.
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On January 6, the day of the tragedy that shocked public opinion, teacher Abigail Zwerner and her colleagues three times warned officials at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia that the CP student might be armed and threatening his classmates , assured Diane Toscano the teacher’s attorney.
“But the school administration didn’t seem to care,” the attorney continued at a news conference on Wednesday, explaining her lawsuit.
The student, who was in possession of a 9mm Taurus pistol, fired a bullet that pierced Ms. Zwerner’s hand before striking her in the chest.
The 25-year-old victim claims to have warned the facility’s management in the morning that the boy, whose identity has not been released, had threatened to hit another child.
An hour later, another teacher warned him that the child had probably brought a gun to school without him seeing it in his school bag.
Finally, a third teacher reported that a student tearfully told him that he had just seen the gun and had been threatened with it.
Despite these warnings, the teachers were not given permission to search the student.
“This tragedy could have been completely avoided if the school security officers had played their part and taken action when they became aware of an imminent danger,” said Diane Toscano.
The teacher survived being shot in the chest but will have to undergo additional surgeries.
Local authorities have decided to temporarily remove his parents’ custody of the child and commit him to a medical center pending a decision on possible prosecution.
Considering his young age, he should be considered criminally irresponsible, although police described the shooting as “premeditated”.
His parents, on the other hand, could be charged with violating a local law that prohibits making loaded guns accessible to children under the age of 14.
The United States, where nearly 400 million guns are in circulation, is regularly ravaged by school shootings, but it’s very rare for the shooters to be this young.