Lawyer In School Shooting Case Claims Administrators Were Warned Multiple Times Before Shooting Of Teacher

The lawyer for a teacher in Virginia who was shot by a six-year-old student in the school claimed on Wednesday that the administrators of the school were warned about the child three times before the shooting occurred.

On Jan. 6, Virginia teacher Abigail Zwerner was severely injured during class after a six-year-old student had come in with a gun and shot her in the chest and hand. Due to the wounds, the teacher ended was rished to the hospital for more than two weeks, according to Al Jazeera.

Now, Zwerner’s lawyer Diane Toscano is claiming that she had warned the school administrators about the six-year-old child having a gun in their person at least three times, and is planning to sue the Newport News School District over the incident, Reuters reported.

“On that day, over the course of a few hours, three different times — three times — school administration was warned by concerned teachers and employees that the boy had a gun on him at the school and was threatening people,” Toscano said.

The first time it was reported was by a teacher in the school, who had decided to search the young child’s school bag to see if the gun was hidden there. She then reportedly said that she believed that the child was hiding it in their pocket.

The second incident was after another child told their teacher that the six-year-old had shown them the gun and threatened to use it against them. This incident was reported to authorities as well, but nothing was done. A third incident reported by another employee was set aside due to the fact that “the school day was almost over.”

“This tragedy was entirely preventable if the school administrator responsible for school safety had done their part and taken action when they had knowledge of imminent danger,” Toscano said.

The repercussions of the incident have been widespread in the school district. The district’s Superintendent George Parker was removed from his position during a secret meeting after revealing that at least one teacher knew about the gun the child was hiding. Police officials also believed that the shooting was “intentional,” though details continue to be scarce.