6-year-old shoots teacher to sue school for inaction.
Her lawyer said on Wednesday that the American elementary school teacher who was shot by her six-year-old student intends to sue the school, claiming that they ignored multiple warnings about the threat.
On January 6, her client Abigail Zwerner and other teachers, according to attorney Diane Toscano, warned Richneck Elementary School administrators three times that the boy might have a gun and was threatening others.
Zwerner sustained serious injuries but survived the shooting.
The 25-year-old Zwerner informed school administrators that the unidentified boy had threatened to beat another child that morning.
Toscano stated, “But the school administration could not be bothered.”
Another teacher informed them an hour later that the boy appeared to have brought a gun to school, but she had not seen it in his bag, and that he might have it in his pockets.
After that, a third teacher said that one student cried and said he had seen the gun and been threatened with it.
A school employee was denied permission to conduct a physical search of the boy, and no further action was taken.
The boy “has little pockets,” according to an administrator, and the problem could wait until the end of the school day.
Tragically, violence broke out at Richneck Elementary School almost an hour later. Toscano stated, “Abby Zwerner was shot in front of those horrified children.”
She stated, “If the school administrators responsible for school safety had done their part and taken action when they knew of an imminent danger, this tragedy could have been completely avoided.”
Zwerner was shot in the chest and survived. He is recovering at home now, but he will need more surgery.
“Based on the future trajectory and needs of our school division,” the decision to fire school district superintendent George Parker III was made public later Wednesday.
The school board thanked Dr. Parker for his service and emphasized that the “decision was made without cause as Dr. Parker is a capable division leader.”
Despite the fact that school shootings are on the rise in the United States, the case astonished a large portion of the country due to the young age of the boy.
The boy may have taken the gun from a closet belonging to his mother. The previous week, his parents released a statement praising Zwerner and asserting that the gun had been secured.
They stated that the boy has “an acute disability” and was enrolled in a special school care plan that typically required a family member to accompany him to class and school.
They stated, “The first week that we were not in class with him was the week of the shooting.”
Charges are unlikely given his age.
However, if the child had access to a gun, his parents could be charged.
