“What a world we live in”: Internet in disbelief as 6-year-old shoots teacher in Virginia school

A 6-year-old Virginia boy has reportedly been detained after shooting a teacher inside a first-grade classroom. The incident took place shortly after 14:00 local time (19:00 GMT) at Richneck Elementary School in the city of Newport News.

Officials said in a statement that the shooting was not accidental and took place after the student and the teacher had an altercation. Newport News Police Chief Steve Drew said:

“We did not have a situation where someone was going around the school shooting. We have a situation in one particular location where a gunshot was fired.”

The teacher, whose identity has not been revealed, is said to be in her 30s. She was taken to a local hospital and suffered life-threatening injuries. She was being monitored by healthcare professionals and her condition reportedly improved by late afternoon.

Authorities said that the school has around 550 students and uses metal detection facilities to randomly check students. However, not every child was inspected on the day of the incident.

Although officers did not name the weapon used in the shooting, they confirmed that the 6-year-old used a handgun. It is not known how the boy obtained the gun.

The shooting incident left social media users in disbelief, with some lamenting the world we live in reality where a 6-year-old child has shot his teacher:

School District Head Dr George Parker said officials would examine “any instance that may have occurred” and caused the incident. He added:

“This is terrible, something like this should never occur. We want to ensure nothing like this happens again.”

In the wake of the shooting incident, officers also moved children on campus to the school gymnasium. Authorities said that the students were “safe” while officers analyzed evidence that was still present at the crime scene.

Chief Drew said that the “number one priority” of authorities was to get all students “back with their parents.” He also shared that officers implemented a system to reunite the children with their parents by dividing them according to their grade level:

“An officer and a school official are walking the student to their parents, so it’s a good happy reunion, a little bit of emotion, but everything right now is safe.”

He also mentioned that there were “plenty of counselors” working with the students to help them deal with the situation and to keep them calm.

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Netizens react to Virginia 6-year-old shooting teacher in class

6-year-old boy shooting teacher at school left people in disbelief (Image via Mike Sington/Twitter)

The shooting incident in Virginia’s Richneck Elementary School involving a 6 year old shooter and school teacher left social media users in utter shock. Many also took to Twitter to react to the incident and shared their disbelief surrounding the age of the shooter.

As reactions continued to pour in online, Mayor Phillip Jones said that it was “a dark day for Newport News.” He also told reporters that authorities will learn from the incident and come back stronger.

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin added that he had offered assistance to local officials and said that his administration was “ready to help” in every way possible.

Officials also announced that the school would be closed on Monday and said that students and parents would be offered support to deal with the traumatic incident.