Abby Zwerner, a teacher who was shot in the US by a six-year-old student, is “showing indications of improvement.”
The child shot Ms Zwerner, a woman in her 30s, after an incident on Friday, leaving her gravely injured. According to authorities, the shooting was not an accident.
The incident took place in the Virginian city of Newport News, where Phillip Jones, the mayor, called it a “red flag for the nation.”
While she is still in the hospital, he claimed that the Richneck Elementary School teacher’s condition is “moving in a positive manner.”
In 2020, Ms. Zwerner received her degree from James Madison University in Virginia. Its president expressed their “deep sadness” over the tragic tragedy in a statement, calling it “an extraordinarily difficult period.”
The instructor was first described by police as having “life-threatening” injuries, but after meeting her on Saturday, a senior officer reported that “she has improved and is currently listed in stable condition.”
According to Chief Steve Drew, the incident did not seem to be an accident and it just affected the one victim. He said that the teacher and pupil had interacted in a classroom context.
He told reporters, “We did not have a circumstance where someone was avoiding the school shooting.
He claimed that the youngster had a firearm in the classroom, and that detectives were attempting to determine how the boy obtained it.
“I do believe that there will be a nationwide discussion on how these kinds of things can be stopped after this happened,” Mr. Jones added.
George Parker III, the superintendent of the Newport News Public Schools, expressed his amazement, horror, and disheartenment.
The boy is too young to go to court.
According to school officials, Richneck will be closed on Monday.
According to Virginia law, six-year-olds cannot be prosecuted as adults.
Furthermore, if found guilty, a six-year-old is too young to be placed in the Department of Juvenile Justice’s custody.
However, a juvenile court judge would have the power to revoke parental custody and transfer a child to the Department of Social Services.
Mr. Jones declined to disclose the location of the boy’s detention but added, “We are ensuring he has all the resources he needs right now.
A local British mother who was upset with the situation told reporters outside the school that it was time for change.
“Let’s take action. Change it now.
“You have a gorgeous nation and gorgeous people, so what’s the issue? Guns!” she cried out.
I would not have came to this country if it weren’t for the fact that my spouse is in the military.
Gun availability by young toddlers “is growing”
A six-year-old shooting a teacher in the classroom, according to Professor Daniel Webster, an expert on gun violence at Johns Hopkins University, is quite unusual.
However, he asserted that his study indicates an increase in the number of incidents in which young children gain access to loaded firearms and mistakenly kill themselves or others in homes or other places.
“Unfortunately, it’s not that uncommon,” he said, “for a six-year-old to get access to a loaded gun and shoot himself or someone else.”
The legal system is “not really built or positioned to deal with [school shootings],” according to researcher David Riedman, who established a database that monitors US school shootings going back to 1970.
According to him, just three other shootings involving six-year-old kids have occurred throughout the timeframe he has studied: a shooting that killed a fellow student in Michigan in 2000 and shootings that injured other students in Texas and Mississippi in 2011 and 2021.
Only one other incidence of a pupil younger than that opening fire in a school, according to Mr. Riedman, occurred in 2013 when a five-year-old brought a gun to a Tennessee school and unintentionally fired it.
In that instance, no one was hurt.
