Teacher shot by 6 year old student in US
A shocking and disturbing incident occurred at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia in the US yesterday. A 6 year old student shot and wounded a teacher, a woman in her 30s, during an altercation in the classroom. The teacher was taken to a local hospital with injuries believed to be life-threatening, but there has reportedly been “some improvement” in her condition. Fortunately, no other students were injured in the shooting.
School shootings involving such a young child are extremely rare, although not completely unheard of. It is not currently known what led to the altercation between the student and the teacher, or what prompted the shooting. The Newport News Police Chief said that it was not an active gunman situation where the child was walking around shooting at people. But he did confirm that the shooting was intentional, not accidental.
The student had a handgun in the classroom, and investigators are working to determine where he got the weapon. Virginia law limits how a child that age can be punished for such a crime. They cannot be placed in a Juvenile Justice correctional facility but could be taken from their parents and remanded to the Department of Social Services.
The police chief did not provide any further details about the student or teacher who was shot, as the investigation is ongoing. School officials have announced that there will be no classes at Richneck Elementary on Monday, as they work to address the aftermath of the shooting and provide support to the community. It is not yet known how long classes will be cancelled, or how the school will address the issue of student safety moving forward.
Parents of students received a text from the school saying only that someone was in custody and someone was shot. Terrified parents raced to the school gym where their kids had been gathered to be collected. A student explained that they grouped in the back of the classroom with many children crying after the incident.
The school where the teacher was shot has 550 students from kindergarten to fifth grade. The town of Newport News itself has just 185,000 residents and is known for building aircraft carriers for the US Navy. The school superintendent commented on the tragedy of gun violence, increasingly common in the US.
“Today 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.”
