Richneck school ignored warnings: 6-year old boy brings mother's gun, shoots teacher

WASHINGTON, Jan 26: A 6-year old boy brought his mother's gun to the Richneck Elementary School in Virginia and his classmate who saw it in his pocket reported the matter to a teacher who in turn informed the school administrator, but nobody took it seriously. Not much later, he shot at his teacher in the classroom, the teacher's lawyer disclosed on Wednesday. This incident had happened on January 6.

When the boy had gone out during a break, a teacher had checked his bag but the gun was not there. It was in his pocket but when told about it, the administrator dismissed the suggestion saying, "Well, he has little pockets." Yet another student had reported to another teacher that the boy had threatened him with a gun he was carrying in his pocket during the break. This teacher too reported it to the administrator!

Later, when the class resumed at 2 pm, he took out the gun and shot at his teacher Ms Abigail Zwerner, 25, in the chest. She was discharged from hospital last week.

The police found a 9mm Taurus pistol at his desk. However, they have not yet made a case. The boy has been detained and the school is shut for now. The incident has shocked the city of Newport News.

"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 school and was threatening people. But the administration could not be bothered," said the teacher's attorney Ms Diane Toscano.

According to reports, the boy's parents said he was suffering from an "acute disability" and he used to attend school along with a parent only but on the fateful day he was alone.

It has been found that the gun was legally purchased by his mother. The boy could be charged in a juvenile court. But here the accused is 6 and juveniles below 11 years cannot be awarded a prison sentence in Virginia. He is currently in a medical facility. His parents may be charged for not securing the pistol from falling into the hands of kids, but the law is vague.

Although shooting by children in schools have become a frequent incident, kids as young as six using guns has been very rare. A six-year old boy shot dead his classmate at a Michigan school in February 2000. The K-12 School Shooting Database shows 18 school shootings were by children under 9 during the last half a century. Around 4 million homes in the US have unsecured guns.

Mass shootings in the month of January alone claimed 69 lives in the US. On Monday eight people were killed in three shootings in California, two in Iowa and three in Washington. On Saturday, 11 people were shot dead at a Chinese Lunar New Year festival in Los Angeles in California.