School district will purchase 90 metal detectors, after a boy aged 6 killed teacher
At a town hall with parents in a town hall meeting, the Virginia Superintendent of the school district claimed that the backpack belonging to a 6-year-old student who fired at the teacher in the classroom was sifted through prior to the shooting.
Newport News Superintendent Dr. George Parker III said the suspect in the shooting was brought to Richneck Elementary School in the morning on the. 6. He also said that his backpack was searched following the report that someone had suggested he carried a gun.
The person who checked the child’s backpack didn’t come across weapons. After a few hours the teacher of 25 years Abigail Zwerner was shot. The school district didn’t disclose who searched the boy’s bag , or what information about the weapon was discovered.
Newport Police told ABC News, “we have determined through our investigation that an employee at the school was aware of a firearm that was in the vicinity at Richneck Elementary before the incident took place.
It is also clear that the Newport News Police Department was not informed of this information before the shooting incident. I am unable to release any additional details at this point due to continuing investigations.”
The six-year-old was suspected of killing Zwerner using a 9mm Taurus pistol in an “intentional” incident, police claimed. She was hospitalized at first for a life-threatening injury.
The school district has announced that it would install metal detectors at every school.
The Newport News School Board said the first metal detectors with walk-throughs for all faculty, students and staff will be put in place at Richneck Elementary, the board’s chair Lisa Surles-Law announced at the press conference.
The school board has announced it would purchase 90 walk-through metal detectors , which will be installed in each school in the district.
District was in a position to receive funds from the city , and make use of funds from the budget of the school in order to buy the detectors made of steel.
Surles-Law stated that a decision is still not reached on the time when Richneck Elementary will reopen.
