Police say 6-year-old shoots teacher at Virginia Elementary School

According to authorities, a teacher at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News sustained “life-threatening injuries” when she was shot by one of her students.

An elementary school teacher in Newport News, Va. was shot by a 6-year-old in the first grade. The incident occurred during an altercation in a classroom.

At a news conference, Steve Drew, chief of the Newport News Police Department stated that the boy who shot the teacher with a handgun once at 2 p.m. was taken into police custody. Drew said that the teacher, a woman aged in her 30s, had been taken to a local hospital, and her condition had improved slightly by Friday afternoon.

Dr. George Parker, Newport News Public Schools’ superintendent, stated at the news conference, “We need to keep guns away from the hands of our youth.”

Video and photos taken on Friday at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News showed the chaos that ensued as officers stormed the brick school. Children appeared confused and afraid, while parents stood next to crime scene tapes and dozens upon dozens of officers.

Tanisha Brown’s 11-year-old son Carter Jackson is a fifth grader at Richneck. She said that she received a terrifying call shortly after the shooting.

Carter, she claimed, was able to hide on the floor with his friends when he heard gunfire.

Ms. Brown, 32, said that it was shocking to hear the children crying and becoming frantic. “All they knew was there was a shooter at school, and they didn’t know where he was.”

Carter was comforted by her as she remained on the phone. She recalled telling Carter, “You will be all right.”

Chief Drew stated that school officials worked quickly to get all students and teachers to the school’s gym and that they had been in contact with lawyers to figure out the best way forward.

Dr. Parker stated, “I cannot control the access to weapons.” Dr. Parker said, “My teachers cannot restrict access to weapons.”

Dr. Parker stated that school will be closed Monday to “work on the mental health and well-being of our staff members and students”.

Newport News, which is located 70 miles southeast of Richmond, was the scene of the shooting. Newport News is a city with more than 180,000 residents. Officials in Virginia were stunned when they started to investigate the incident at the school.

Dr. Parker stated, “I am in shock, I’m amazed, and then I’m demoralized.”

Phillip Jones, Newport News’ mayor, stated at a press conference that the shooting was still “still raw” and that the city was taking steps to prevent another similar incident.

Curtis Bethany was a city councilman who said Newport News was in “uncharted” territory. “I have never heard of a 6-year-old going to school with a loaded gun.”

It is rare to find a young shooter in a school shooting incident.

David Riedman, who created the K-12 Shooting Database in 2018 after the Parkland high school massacre, has compiled data about every school shooting, including any firearm discharged on school property, dating back to 1970. 16 cases were found involving shooters younger than 10.

Three of the shootings involved 6-year-olds. Two of them were accidental shootings. One was in Houston in 2011, when a student brought a gun to school, and three others were injured. Another occurred in Mississippi in 2021 when a first-grader accidentally shot another student using a gun he brought to school. The third case was the most notable and drew national attention. A 6-year-old boy shot dead a young girl while the teacher was setting up students in a hallway.

According to Mr. Riedman, there was only one school shooting that involved someone younger than 6 years: A kindergartner aged 5 shot a gun at his Memphis school’s cafeteria in 2013. Nobody was hurt.

The threat of gun violence in schools is evident from the incident in Newport News. A mass shooting occurred at an elementary school in Uvalde (Texas) in May. It left two teachers and 19 children dead. Six people were injured in another school shooting that occurred in Oakland (Calif.) on September 2.

Dr. James J. Fedderman is the president of the Virginia Education Association. He stated in a statement he was “saddened” that another school shooting took place in Virginia.

Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association said that she hoped for a complete recovery of all educators who have been injured in yet another act of gun violence in schools. Today, however, we are discussing another school shooting. This violence will continue until elected leaders act to stop gun violence in our schools and communities.

Dr. Parker stated that although district schools may have metal detection capability, they do not require children to walk through a metal detector every single day.

He said, “If there is a threat or issue we may conduct random metal detections.”

He stressed that guns are not restricted to campus, but because they have “access in the local community.”

He said, “This isn’t a Newport News problem.” “It’s bigger and more complex than what we see today.”