r/news
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u/jschubart
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8d ago
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1
Lawyer: Admins were warned 3 times the day boy shot teacher Title Not From Article
https://apnews.com/article/newport-news-school-shooting-a40dfad64388aadf1f9021117741252218.5k
u/jschubart
8d ago
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The teacher is unsurprisingly suing the district.
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u/thirtytwoutside 8d ago
In a just world, the compensation would come out of the paychecks of every single one of the administrators who failed to act, instead of the taxpayer.
Because it will be the kids and the rest of the teachers who end up indirectly footing the bill, and that sucks.
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u/BeefyHemorroides 8d ago
Don’t forget the “acutely disabled” child’s (who apparently needed a parent present at school but surprise surprise was left alone) obnoxious parents with their “secured” firearm.
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u/Thats_what_im_saiyan 8d ago
Yeah secured does not mean on a shelf thats 6 foot tall with a trigger lock. According to the article this was the first week his parents didn't accompany the kid to school. Maybe its just me but you would think there would be extra eyes on that kid given the circumstances. And you would want to try to intervene earlier if something was possibly going wrong.
I know I shouldn't say anything without knowing the nature of the disability. But I would either take extra care to ensure my disabled child could access a firearm. Or just not have one in the house. Hell even a non disabled child there should be a safe or something. Not just chillin on a shelf.
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u/tkp14 8d ago
I’m 75 years old so when I was a little kid none of this gun safety (or let’s be frank, much of any kind of safety beyond “don’t play in traffic”) information was available or widely known. When I was around 7 or 8 I became increasingly curious and loved to explore around my house. As an only child it was on me to entertain myself when my neighborhood friends were not around. I loved exploring my mom’s closet — she had clothes, hats, and shoes that were 1940s vintage and I loved that stuff. One day I must have decided to expand my area of exploration and I dragged a choir to my dad’s closet and started rooting around on the top shelf. I found a gun. I held it for a few minutes, looking closely at it. My only exposure to guns at that point were television shows like Gunsmoke and Dragnet. I knew enough to be slightly scared of it. I carefully and quietly put it back. Any adult who thinks that storing a gun on the top shelf of an easily accessible closet is a fool. And I disabused my parents of their idea it was safely stored away from me when I asked them about it. I received a stern lecture accompanied by appreciation for telling them the truth. But I definitely looked again a couple of weeks later and it was gone. I never saw it again.
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u/heinous_asterisk 8d ago
The bare fact that the kid managed to get (and shoot!) the gun is proof that it was not actually secure, is it not?
Whatever measures they thought were adequate, obviously weren't.
Separately from that I'm just kinda curious what the kid's disability is.
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u/PainTrain412 8d ago
Correct. A 6 year old shouldn’t know how to unlock, load and then fire a weapon. Even the NRA recommends starting no earlier than 8 because of the dangers of lead exposure and what that can do to a child’s development (among several other factors). So that tells me that these folks either showed their kid WAYYY too early or it was already unlocked and loaded and ready to go and all the kid needed to do was point and shoot.
Either way, they’re grossly negligent.
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u/GuiltyEidolon 8d ago
When you're not even following the crazy ass NRA guidelines, you know something is fucked.
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u/FatassTitePants 8d ago
Which is a shame. Until the NRA decided to be a politically influential money laundering scheme that scares paranoid rubes into spending every spare nickle on preparing to battle the government, they actually were a decent organization focused on safety and responsibility.
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u/tedivm 8d ago edited 8d ago •
My dad restores old guns and collects others (he also goes to the range fairly regularly). As a child if I wanted to get to the guns I would have to-
- Break into the room in the basement he built for storage, which was always locked.
- Somehow break into the safe, which required two keys to get into. My dad kept one of the keys on his personal key chain which was with him all the time. No joke, he would put that key chain on his night stand while sleeping.
- Break into the other safe that held the ammunition.
"Put on a shelf in the closet" is shockingly irresponsible.
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u/OperationJericho 8d ago
I don't know how your dad was in other aspects of your life, but those are actions of a person who is actually committed to the safety of their kids, family, and overally community.
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u/tedivm 8d ago
Oh my dad is a complete piece of shit, to the point where I ended up suing him for custody of my sister. Which if anything makes the point even stronger- even a complete piece of shit knows that kids shouldn't be able to access guns.
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u/Incredulous_Toad 8d ago
Well that certainly took an unexpected turn. But it strengthens your point.
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u/TangledPangolin 8d ago
Maybe he was such a shit dad that he had to take precautions in case his family wanted to shoot him
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u/al3cks 8d ago
I’d go as far to argue that if a child has such behavioral issues that they’re required to have a parent present at school…maybe they should be enrolled in a school that’s more specialized to deal with that.
I went to a public school with some students with behavioral issues but have never heard of a situation where any student’s parents are required to be at school with them.
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u/Issendai 8d ago
Agreed. The law requires kids to be mainstreamed as much as possible, but when a kid can’t get through the day without the constant presence of a parent, it’s hard to say they’re ready to be mainstreamed.
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u/Dolmenoeffect 8d ago
Taking me back to the memory of my dad's gun safe being propped open for convenience and easy access. I avoid visiting him now and I watch my kid like a hawk when I do.
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u/Sorry-Letter6859 8d ago
When my dad passed in his 70s, i found a half dozen guns around the house and unsecured. People get complacent and stupid. They were all loaded.
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u/caboosetp 8d ago
But I would either take extra care to ensure my disabled child could access a firearm
I do not think you phrased this the way you intended.
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u/Poop_Noodl3 8d ago
Each one of these articles will be listed under “exhibit going to bankrupt your district”
She’ll never have to work again
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u/punkinbeavisadam 8d ago
I mean she got shot by her first grade student. I would imagine that severely messed up her outlook on teaching
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u/rajrdajr 8d ago edited 8d ago
she got shot by her first grade student
After the administration was warned about the boy at 11:15am and then they were warned 3 more times before Zwerner was shot at 2:00pm. The district must fire the entire administration immediately.
What a terrible school district to let those administrators near children. Bringing a gun anywhere near school grounds around here is a felony and it must be made that way everywhere to stop school shootings. School grounds are not a well regulated militia.
Edit: not a well regulated... Whoops!
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u/SingForMeBitches 8d ago •
I've said it before, and I'll say it again - there's tons of talk about teacher and education reform in America, but pretty much no one talks about administration reform, where I believe the heart of education problems lie. Administrators are responsible for setting school policies and controlling much of what teachers do in the classroom. Admin are the ones who give troubled or dangerous kids a bag of chips and dump them back in class five minutes later with no support. Admin are the ones who maintain "building relationships" will fix every problem kids have at school. Admin are the ones who are too afraid of parents and low graduation rates to expel kids or send them to alternate programs. Admin are the ones who make 25+ kids in a class suffer because of one child causing consistent, sometimes traumatic, disruptions.
Admin. Reform. Now.
Source: myself, a newly former teacher who left mostly due to administrative faults.
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u/FSD-Bishop 8d ago
One of my friends had a student in their class that would scream and throw thing and flip their desk and she couldn’t do a thing to fix the situation.
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u/AtuinTurtle 8d ago
“Clear the classroom” I’m a band director, so where do you want me to take 50 kids while the one is creating god knows how much property damage which includes students’ personal instruments?
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u/Tomoki 8d ago
Solution: your job has been removed due to arts budget cuts. Now you don't have to move the kids anywhere!
/s except that some school districts/admins would probably do this 🥴
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u/Artanthos 8d ago
Have done this.
Have been doing this for years.
Music and arts were not included in No Child Left Behind .
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u/davdev 8d ago
I taught HS for 3 years. Never again. School Admins have absolutely no clue what they are doing, especially the board members who are only there because they ran unopposed in an election and have zero qualifications otherwise.
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u/cyncity7 8d ago
Administration is where all the money goes, too, instead of to the teachers.
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u/SingForMeBitches 8d ago
At least in my former district, administration wastes a metric fuckton of money on technology they don't understand and unvetted programs that usually are cycled through in one or two years. I never bought in to any of it because I knew we would have a new trend next year, so why bother? Their bought and paid for reading program is now widely panned, and they have spent so much on books and conferences by researchers or feel-good motivational speakers that they move on from the following year. Not to mention the hours upon hours wasted "training" us in these methods, when we really just need time and the trust that we, as teachers, know how to do our jobs. Admin micromanages teachers to an insane degree nowadays. Oh my god, I need to stop ranting, but there are so many problems.
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u/Gromky 8d ago
I got up to student teaching before bailing on the idea of being a teacher about a decade ago.
In my classes we repeatedly had discussions about some study that said "teaching method X/technology Y is a huge improvement!" I started to realize that every study found a huge improvement, even if it was essentially an old idea in new packaging. Or it was the exact opposite of what some other study found was the best thing ever.
After a while, and looking at the study methods, I became convinced that most of the effect was just comparing a couple teachers who are now invested and excited about their "new" method to whatever control they came up with. They weren't testing teaching methods, they were testing effort and engagement of the teachers in the study.
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u/Anomander 8d ago
Districts often cause administrative bloat once they start trying to finesse getting more value out of lower direct spending on teachers.
They'll spend a hundred on administration to save a dollar in the classroom.
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u/Bird-The-Word 8d ago
Recent building spent a few grand on a new conference table but balked at having to grab $12 cables for new projectors. They nickel and dime shit like that but then go and replace all the desks and furniture in the district office for 10s, maybe 100s of thousands, but won't get speakers for classroom computers.
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u/4jet2116 8d ago
I’m right there with you as a former SLP. Far too often districts/admin cave to parents and ignore the professionals’ opinions for what the parents “want.” It eventually got to be too much, and I when I left for a new district to realize the same issues are everywhere.
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u/SquashInternal3854 8d ago edited 8d ago
Absolutely!
I taught high school English and actually enjoy the students and am good at it (not that it's always easy, but I understand how to talk to teenagers and how to make learning interesting).
What broke me was the utter lack of admin support. It was ALWAYS the teachers fault; teachers doing a whole song and dance in student meetings, while the kid does nothing productive; uninvolved parents; tedious paperwork to satisfy the bureaucrats; observations and consultants. Then: teachers, who due to incompetence do poorly in the classroom, but magically some new admin-type position is created for them.
When I was a new SPED teacher the vice principal doing my observation plainly told me: "sped teachers never get a 5/5 rating and that's just how it is." You better believe I stopped trying and reiterated what he said in my "reflection".
There's so many more instances that, added up, over time, deflate you. Then you break down and quit/retire/take leave.
All at the expense of our students.
Trim the fat: eliminate most Admin positions.
Edit: my first year at a new school I taught 11th grade. One boy: his entire high school career was depressed and quiet, did NO work whatsoever, and during class drew pictures of guns, bullets, swastikas and the words 'I want to die'. I was gobsmacked. How did he not register on anyone's radar before this?! I definitely made a (appropriate and professional) stink about it and he was removed and given mental healthcare resources. So sadly, I can see how the staff at this 6yo boys school in VA just let it all slide.
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u/coldbench 8d ago
It’s crazy to hear teachers all over the country experiencing the exact same things. I was a new sped teacher and I’ve already left the profession. I got zero support from both the principal and my special Ed boss.
They would ignore emails pleading for help, but never failed to remind me of my bullshit professional development goals that needed to be updated. I basically said the goals were useless and promptly asked the district if I could resign (more to it but I’m not gonna type that all out). I couldn’t imagine being that miserable all of the time. I’m much happier in my new job, it’s nice to not work under such a monolithic bureaucracy. I’m lucky I could get out, I feel bad for those who have much more vested.
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u/steppen79 8d ago
Thank you for posting this. My wife is a teacher and I came here to post something to this effect. There are many problems with the American education system but one of the biggest IMO are school administrations. They NEVER have the teachers' backs or are willing to support them. The things teachers have to deal with on a daily basis is mind numbing.
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u/Landsy314 8d ago
And even more fucked up, they were warned because he had threatened to shoot other kids and they told the teachers. What the actual fuck is wrong in this fucking country
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u/primal7104 8d ago edited 8d ago
What we know so far is that the student is some kind of extreme behavior problem and requires 100% attendance by a parent to even be in the classroom. This is the first day that a parent was not present.
Does that not give admin a clue that they have to take the threats and warnings seriously? How much more of a threat can there be? There were so many red flags here.
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u/Landsy314 8d ago
You know, and now that you say that, the one fucking day a parent doesn't show up he has a gun and shoots someone? The parents need to be in jail for this one, this whole thing is fucking insanity
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u/RockerElvis 8d ago
It will be paid by the school’s insurance. Which is actually a good thing since the other students shouldn’t have to suffer for the administration’s mistakes.
Speaking of, the administration should be fired immediately.
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u/Hojalu 8d ago
An article on MSNBC says she still has a bullet lodged dangerously in her body. She may not be able to work again.
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u/Sloth_Monk 8d ago
Here’s the part about the search and threats. Sounds like administration had every opportunity to prevent this but did literally nothing, the search they keep touting happened wasn’t even done by them:
She said that around 12:30 p.m., one teacher told administrators that she had taken it upon herself to search the boy’s bookbag but warned that she thought he had the gun in his pocket. Toscano said that after 1 p.m., another boy told his teacher that the student had shown him the gun and threatened to shoot him, and that the teacher reported that to administrators. Another employee later asked for permission to search the boy after hearing about the gun but “was told to wait the situation out because the school day was almost over,” Toscano said.
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u/Darehead 8d ago edited 8d ago
"wait the situation out"
They show absolutely no awareness of or desire to understand what the actual problem is in this situation. Letting the kid go home with the gun (just to wipe their hands clean of liability) does nothing to prevent that kid from coming back the next day with the same gun.
They aren't even attempting to deal with the problem.
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u/davdev 8d ago
Wait the kid out til he is on the bus. That way he can shoot the driver and kill 30 kids in a fiery wreck. Brilliant planning
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u/WSDGuy 8d ago
Imagine if the kid went home and shot some parents. We might only ever have heard that "he got the gun from his parents' closet, unlocked it, and killed them" and nothing about the actions of the school.
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u/SidewaysFancyPrance 8d ago
They absolutely needed to contact the police immediately. Especially after the kid threatened to shoot a teacher? This is beyond negligent or reckless behavior. This was "I hope he kills someone off of school property tonight so it's not our responsibility" problem solving.
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u/hemingways-lemonade 8d ago
I don't know how that teacher didn't dial 911 themselves after being told to ignore the gun by administrators.
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u/TheAkashicTraveller 8d ago
To me unacompanied young child with a gun means call the police immediatly and tell your boss later.
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u/Eelwithzeal 8d ago
What if something happened on the bus?! He could have shot kids or the bus driver and gotten them in an accident
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u/DrMrtni 8d ago
Wait it out - "not my job, not my prob. Let someone else deal with it"
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u/DifficultMinute 8d ago
another boy told his teacher that the student had shown him the gun and threatened to shoot him
The fact that the student didn't spend the rest of the day being investigated, having his parents called, and talking to the police, is asinine.
How does the school not go into soft lockdown at that moment, and ensure that this threat isn't credible (which, unfortunately, in this case it was).
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u/Gruesome 8d ago
My kid got suspended at age eight for bringing in a pencil eraser shaped like a gun. A pencil eraser that was an inch long. The school had a "no tolerance" policy and were prepared to EXPEL for the remainder of the school year. Talk about a pendulum!
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u/WommyBear 8d ago
How long ago was that? My guess is about 10-15 years? Because you are so right, the pendulum has swung the opposite way! Both of those swings are assinine.
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u/PorygonTriAttack 8d ago
Oh jesus. What kind of a MESSED UP 6 year old boy brings a gun and threatens to shoot someone with it?
Parents are fucked in the head here. That kid needs to be taken away for the good of society AND for the kid.
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u/jayfeather31 8d ago
Heads need to roll here. I don't think you can even call it a serious error at this point, as it's worse than that.
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u/sfblue11 8d ago
The article mentions that the Board of Ed was meeting to discuss a separation and severance package for the district superintendent - so once again the person at the top who should be held responsible will get a nice payday to go quietly away.
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u/wistoon33 8d ago
district superintendent
I'm not sure what they're role in this was anyways. It's not like a superintendent is at the elementary school and if these principals wouldn't even search the kid for a gun, I cannot imagine they're calling the superintendent about the issue. My guess is the superintendent didn't have a clue anything happened until the teacher was shot. I get the idea that the buck stops at the superintendent but these principals need to go way before the sup.
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u/WVSmitty 8d ago
iirc - that school / district had a history of complaints concerning security that were never addressed
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u/NoahtheRed 8d ago
I worked for that district for 4 years (Yes, Kevin is a product of it).....not a single scandalous part of this case is remotely surprising to me or any of my friends who formerly/currently work for NNPS. It's had leadership issues for decades.
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u/NoBetterOptions_real 8d ago
What!? You're the Kevin story person?? It's crazy after all this time I still remember it so well
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u/101189 8d ago
Gun problems in American schools for .. I dunno .. 30 years .. and this isn’t surprising? Even the most idiot person working in a school knows to take gun threats seriously, lmao. These people need prison time just like the Uvalde pussies (yeah I know the situation is different, they’re all still pussies - and that’s a bit of an insult to pussies)
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u/NoahtheRed 8d ago
and this isn’t surprising?
The way NNPS has historically handled things makes this result unsurprising. If a sportsbook were interested in such a morally abhorrent wager, I'd have bet the farm that a significant event like this was inevitable there.
Even the most idiot person working in a school knows to take gun threats seriously
The district is notorious for underreporting. They'll avoid any risk of exposing lax security and safety if they get away with it. They aren't interested in safety, but just the appearance of it.
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u/WickedYetiOfTheWest 8d ago
The Hampton Roads school systems in general (barring one or two districts) are in terrible shape imo. Especially on the peninsula.
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u/Use_this_1 8d ago
This was a systemic failure, like Uvalde without the body count. Throw out the whole system and start over.
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u/Salty_Lego 8d ago
Just go ahead and fire everyone involved.
What an absolute joke.
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u/Lendyman 8d ago
Not everyone. The teacher who took it upon themselves to search the kid's locker deserves a pat on the back for not waiting for permission and being proactive.
The administration definately needs to be canned immediately though. The decision to wait til the end of the day boggles the mind.
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u/hibearmate 8d ago
Echoing Hudson in Aliens
They should put the 6 year old in charge
they were the only one with an effing plan and the ability to execute
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u/Tarable 8d ago
When I was a senior in HS, another student threatened to kill me, in writing, for not dating his friend and the school told me he had a right to a public education and wanted us to sit down and talk it out. I didn’t. I ended up home schooled the rest of the year.
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u/L88d86c 8d ago
First, I'm sorry.
My first year teaching high school (I was barely 22), a student told me he'd kill me last and meant it as a compliment. I reported it to admin, and they didn't even speak to him about it. I called his father, and he told me to call his mother instead because he had a restraining order against his own kid after the teen broke his jaw. Nothing happened, and the student remained in school all 5 years I taught there. This was in the county across the river from where this shooting took place, and my high school was the school people sent their kids to live with grandma to attend to get them out of Newport News Public Schools.
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u/Tarable 8d ago
It’s hard not to get hopeless about shit. I’m so sorry. That’s terrifying.
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u/L88d86c 8d ago
It was a rough 5 years. I moved and just never went back to teaching. Odd thing is, I'd likely go say hi to the guy if I went home and saw him again (and he looked stable). Administration not believing me and always looking for a way to blame teachers is why I haven't gone back.
I'm sorry you had to switch to homeschooling, but I'm glad you could finish your year with less fear.
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u/Repogirl27 8d ago
The administration made it sound like they searched the kids bag. Now it sounds like a teacher searched it due to the administrations lack of action. That’s insane.
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u/Seraphynas 8d ago
after 1 p.m., another boy told his teacher that the student had shown him the gun and threatened to shoot him, and that the teacher reported that to administrators.
They willfully ignored a report that another student/child had physically seen this kid in possession of a gun and had been threatened with said gun!!
the 25-year-old teacher at Richneck Elementary School plans to sue the school district over the Jan. 6 shooting,
Good! I hope these administrators are specifically named in the lawsuit and I hope they have to pay damages so high that they have resort to selling plasma in order to eat.
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u/Miguel-odon 8d ago
Imagine being the kid who reported it to teachers as he should have, only for them to ignore the problem.
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u/HappyAmbition706 8d ago
Reported as he should have, and after being threatened to be shot if he did. That is a brave and responsible kid!
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u/treemily 8d ago
Sadly, as a kid, he probably assumed that telling an adult was the right/safe thing to do because they would know how to handle such a threat. 🫤
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u/MontEcola 8d ago
Let me get this straight.
-The student has special needs, and a parent needs to sit with him in class.
-Other teachers alerted school administration that the boy might have a gun.
-Mom thought he might have a gun, but did not know where it was. It was not found in a backpack search.
-Did they search his desk or other areas?
-They still allowed this kid to be in the class without someone sitting with him.
-The teacher got shot.
I want to count up who should be sued. I ran out of fingers.
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u/Great_cReddit 8d ago
Shit if my child was in that class when this happened I'm suing too for emotional trauma. Those poor kids had to witness something that could have EASILY been avoided if the admin did their job.
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u/mhwnc 8d ago
Or if the parents did theirs. I would be naming the parents right next to the school in that lawsuit.
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u/ComfyInDots 8d ago
Right??! As if any parent worth their salt would sit beside their child, who they believed had a gun, and learn ABCs. Mind boggling.
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u/sennbat 8d ago
You're missing a bit:
The backpack search was done without administration consent.
A student reported that during the time the backpack was searched, the kid hadn't the gun on them and was threatening to use it to shoot said student.
The administration actively stepped in and prevented a staff member from searching the student's person who attempted to do so.
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u/grandmawaffles 8d ago
So to summarize:
-parents bought/kept a gun in a house knowing they had a child with issues -had the gun in an area without a locked door that the child knew about -had the trigger lock key available to the child -had a ladder available to and child -the child used the ladder and trigger lock key to to retrieve the gun -the parents who had a requirement to attend school daily with their child magically were not there on the day of the shooting -administrators who knew the kid had issues and was not being supervised by his parent did not listen to any other adult or other children who made reports
The kid sucks, the parents suck, the administrators suck, the school board and superintendent suck. I hope the teacher takes every single one of them for everything.
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u/edcculus 8d ago
That teacher should be compensated so they never have to work a day in their lives again if they so choose. The many layers of negligence here are unacceptable.
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u/grandmawaffles 8d ago
💯 to cover no longer working at the wage of an administrator, lifetime benefits, medical care, mental health care, pain and suffering, and moving to a new area away from people that may seek retribution.
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u/Use_this_1
8d ago
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Everyone failed that teacher, the boy's parents, the school. Administration needs to be at the very least reprimanded if not terminated and the boys parents belong in jail and the child needs extensive mental health care and should not be allowed other children.
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u/Minnesota_Slim 8d ago
I would never want to work for an admin that wanted to “wait it out” when it comes to gun threats. I could never trust them again. They should be done with education.
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u/RocketizedAnimal 8d ago
My wife was an 8th grade teacher, quit at the end of last year.
One of the major reasons she quit was a gun incident they had. One kid brought a gun, and one of his friends was carrying bullets. They caught the kid with the gun but because he wasn't carrying the bullets at the time they said it was unloaded and only suspended him for a week.
My wife said she didn't feel safe with this kid back in her class and filled out paperwork stating this, because that is the only way to force the administration to actually move him.
The kid threw a fit about it, and her principal told him "well its your math teacher's fault, she filled out paperwork to get you in trouble". For the rest of the year he made burner emails and instagram accounts to harass her and they wouldn't do anything about it because "we can't prove it is him".
She quit as soon as her contract ended.
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u/Brewmentationator 8d ago
I'm a high school teacher, and I would use up the rest of my paid leave and then quit. Fuck that. I am absolutely breaking contract over that.
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u/NoteBlock08 8d ago
Wtf! She doesn't feel safe so the principal thinks it's appropriate to rat her out to the one she feels threatened by?!
Thank fucking god she quit and that kid didn't decide to exact revenge.
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u/SetYourGoals 8d ago
How much you want to bet that this same administration were overreactive pains in the ass about a bunch of pointless shit like what clothes the kids wear or something.
A physical gun is the ONE thing you have to wildly overreact to.
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u/western_red 8d ago
I'm surprised no one called the police when the administration didn't care.
I'm assuming that if they did, this situation could have been handled better and those the teachers who called the police would have been punished by the same apathetic administration for "not handling it internally".
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u/SamurottX 8d ago
I'm sure somebody wanted to but was told to handle it internally (aka not handle it at all). Imagine if they were told, "no we can't call the police because what if they mess up and hurt the child, or even someone innocent" which would be a frustrating way to go full circle on all the issues the US has been having.
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u/borkus 8d ago
Any administrator who interacted with the incident and possibly any administrator in the building is going to be terminated. Keeping them in the building would create a massive uproar from parents.
I don’t know if they can lose their credentials for this but no district in the country would hire them at this point. Their careers in education are over.
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u/housebird350 8d ago
boys parents belong in jail
On felonies. They should no longer be allowed to buy or posses firearms. Im a proponent of 2A, but at some point, some people forfeit their rights and I think these people are at that point.
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u/Moodybeachphoto 8d ago
They had it secured but he got the gun. It had a lock but he shot the gun. They usually go to school with him every day but this was the one week they didn’t… yeah these parents are full of shit.
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u/PMSoldier2000 8d ago
My daughter was a teacher, and this is precisely the level of support she received from her administration regarding violent students. In spite of her warnings to the administration, she did not feel safe because of one or two student's threats and behaviors. She was once attacked by a student with scissors and the child was returned to the classroom after about 30 minutes. My daughter left teaching after 5 years and hasn't looked back. And we wonder why there is a teacher shortage.
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u/fuckityfuckfuckf_ck 8d ago
When I worked at a restaurant I would chat with the delivery drivers from Uber Eats and many, many of them were ex-teachers who picked up delivery bc they walked off the job. Many, many of them walked off the job bc they were attacked by a student and told to get back to work with the student in their classroom.
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u/shinywtf 8d ago
Yeah during my last move one of my movers had been a teacher for 8 years before he gave up for similar reasons. Also said he made more money now 🤷♀️
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u/earhere 8d ago
The only person who did the right thing in this situation is the person who got shot.
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u/HappyAmbition706 8d ago
The kid who reported being shown the gun did the right thing also.
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u/xi545 8d ago
That's terrifying for that little boy. And what did his parents think when he got home? Absolutely ridiculous.
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u/PoeDameronPoeDamnson 8d ago
I imagine they realized how close they came to identifying their child’s body that day then had to stop themselves from breaking down in front of their 6 year old over it.
I’d also imagine they immediately looked into homeschooling options because like hell would I be sending my baby back to that district.
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u/StrengthDazzling8922 8d ago
The gun was not “secured”. A six year old got access to it and shot his teacher. Parent or parents should be arrested and personally sued by that teacher for every penny they have or ever will have.
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u/abortionleftovers 8d ago
“The gun was secured” the fact that your 6 year old brought it to school proved that was a lie.
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u/MillionPtsofLight 8d ago
Exactly, the gun was clearly not secured as their kid had all the tools he needed to gain access to it. They also must have taught him how to load and shoot it.
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u/Any-Environment-17 8d ago
I've heard so many horror stories from teachers about school admin. Some Admin are so bad they probably think the teacher deserved to get shot.
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u/Sweet-Sale-7303 8d ago
In the district I live in they found bullets in a package in the lobby of the school. Administration said eh oh well and didn't even tell people till 3 days later. Didn't evacuate to see if somebody was walking around with a gun or anything.
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u/jb2051 8d ago
I got injured by a student. Have sciatic nerve damage plus pinched nerves in my neck, wrist, and elbow. Waiting on surgery for wrist and elbow. Just had MRI on neck yesterday. Yep, my district said I was lying about my pain and stopped all my care. Three years later and still wandering when all this will end but know reality says it’s lifetime.
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u/Worthyness 8d ago
Admin is where most of the budget goes because it sure as hell doesn't go to the teachers or supplies.
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u/Seattle_gldr_rdr 8d ago
Every aspect of this story reeks of inexplicable dysfunction.
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u/AnybodySeeMyKeys 8d ago
I have immense respect for teachers. School administrators? Not so much. Essentially bureaucrats who literally cannot think in anything but rigid and predetermined ways.
If a teacher reported a kid was brandishing a gun, anybody with the IQ of a rhesus monkey would know to take the gun from the kid immediately. Either by walking in and grabbing it or calling the cops.
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u/epidemicsaints 8d ago
Teen girls get strip searched for vapes but they can't find a gun on a tiny 6 year old's person. Maybe he's not tiny? I dunno.
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u/IowaAJS 8d ago
Just how big of pockets are on tiny clothes for a little six year old? Was it a crazy miniature derringer or something? (I’m sure it wasn’t, but seriously…)
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u/replus 8d ago
“The administrator downplayed the report from the teacher and the possibility of a gun, saying — and I quote — ‘Well, he has little pockets,’ ” Toscano said.
Imagine a teacher under your employ nearly gets murdered on your grounds, and your excuse is "ya know, we thought about searching him, but he's 6, ya know? Look at those tiny pockets."
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u/IowaAJS 8d ago
Yeah, it's terrible. Some kids get in trouble for making an artistic representation of a gun and get suspended (ugh, I didn't want to use drawing in this context) and others don't even get looked at.
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u/SirAdrian0000 8d ago
I recall a pop tart being bitten into a vaguely gun like shape getting a kid suspended.
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u/Murky_Conflict3737 8d ago
Those super lightweight derringers make me so nervous. They look like a slight jolt would set them off plus some look like toys.
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u/CuriousCryptid444 8d ago
I would be pissed if I was that teacher. She deserves a big payout
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u/dregwriter 8d ago
“He was told to wait the situation out because the school day was almost over,”
WWWWWOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWW
the shear amount of just pure, I dont give a fuck/ out of sight out of mind/ not my responsibility attitude in that one sentence.
Im blown away by this statement. Just fuck them kids, right!?
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u/Iceescape81 8d ago
Hopefully these lawsuits will make administrators take teacher safety more seriously. Apparently in the last 20 years, administrators tend to not back up their teachers for fear of potentially offending parents.
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u/Ryanlynn2004 8d ago
Yall remember when elementary school students were getting suspended for finger guns and eating a pop tart to make a shape of a gun? Now we are at this.
We need to be somewhere in the middle.
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u/RamonaQ-JunieB 8d ago
This sounds exactly like the modern administrator:
Down play, do nothing, blame everyone else for the problems that are in YOUR BUILDING! Take NO responsibility for anything and then wonder why nobody respects you.
They need to be fired or forced out of their jobs immediately.
And yes, I just retired after teaching elementary school for 44 years. There is too much blame to go around.
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u/Zamboniqueen 8d ago
Jesus. My kid got written up in 1st grade for making “finger guns” when he was playing a game. WTF.
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u/WSDGuy 8d ago
There was also that famous pop-tart-bitten-into-a-vaguely-gun-shape incident.
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u/Jaymez82 8d ago
In addtion to everything else that needs to be examined with a fine toothed comb, I want this explored more.
The family also said in its statement that the boy has an “acute disability” and was under a care plan “that included his mother or father attending school with him and accompanying him to class every day.” The week of the shooting was the first when a parent was not in class with him, the family said.
So the kid who is always shadowed by one of his parents managed to shoot his teacher during the very first week he's not with them? Maybe my tinfoil hat needs adjusting, but this smells funny to me.
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u/KnavishBoot 8d ago
That’s what I want to know - this kid apparently has some pretty severe mental issues (to the point a parent was supposed to be with him)……..and yet he was allowed in school without one 🤷♂️
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u/WSDGuy 8d ago
You would think that if something happened that caused the parents to be unable to attend, that the child would therefore be unable to attend.
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u/overpregnant 8d ago
The family’s attorney, James Ellenson, told The Associated Press thathis understanding was that the gun was in the woman’s closet on a shelfwell over 6 feet (1.8 meters) high and had a trigger lock that required akey.
I mean, obviously not dude
edited to add: In my fantasy world they attach felony charges to the owners of guns "found" by kids. Maybe they need more of an incentive to actually become the responsible gun owners we keep hearing about
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u/fivelinedskank 8d ago
Something about the way the attorney said it's "his understanding" seems telling, like he doesn't want to state it as an actual assertion. There probably are legal repercussions to leaving it easily accessible, which is why likely the reason for the statement.
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u/daphydoods 8d ago
It’s a miracle that she made it out alive and I’m not just talking about the gunshots she sustained…it could have been so, so much worse
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u/igirisujin 8d ago
I hope that Abigail Zwerner gets a huge settlement. I'd also like to see the mother (and father if at the house, but have only seen the mother mentioned) do some time behind bars, but not sure if that is likely.
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u/ExCap2 8d ago
I wish more schools had balls to kick out students temporarily or permanently. BUT BUT I PAY SCHOOL TAXES?!?!?! You must accept my student! No. 1 student messing up an entire classroom from learning is unacceptable. If you're taking the tax stance it's 30 other student's parents paying taxes against you.
A lot of people complain about School Resource Officers, but if teachers, principals can't do anything; you need a parent or SRO to physically calm down or remove a student these days. Crazy times. Too much parenting responsibility is put on schools.
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u/FightmeLuigibestgirl 8d ago
- The kid said that he wanted to set a teacher on fire and watch her die.
- The kid, at 6, managed to get a gun that was supposed to be in a lockbox 6ft high from the parents
- Kid managed to bring it to school, unsupervised
- Parents have to physically be with the kid and magically were not on that day for some reason
- The kid threaten multiple times with the gun and none of the staff did anything, called the police, etc.
- Nobody took the gun away and the higher-ups told them that to "wait until the end of the day."
It looks like everyone failed but the teacher. I don't understand this.
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u/divinbuff 8d ago
There are some kids with behavioral issues so serious that they should not be in a classroom Period. We expect the schools to handle situations they are not equipped to handle. This kid sounds like he needs to be institutionalized for his own benefit and the safety of those around him. He is way past just needing some additional supervision.
I don’t know how he got that way, but I do know it’s not the schools responsibility to straighten him out.
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u/SamurottX 8d ago
It's one thing to say "well he has a gun so we gotta be careful about how we approach this". It's another thing entirely to ignore it and wait for the school day to end first. Especially when the student had threatened others multiple times. This isn't incompetence, this is negligence.