NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — School division leaders said Thursday evening that “at least one administrator was notified of a possible weapon” on campus before a 6-year-old student shot his teacher Jan. 6 at Richneck Elementary.
Superintendent George Parker announced some new details of the investigation during a virtual town hall with Richneck families.
“While our investigation continues, we know that the student did not arrive at the beginning of school, they arrived later in the day at approximately 11:30,” Parker said. “We also know that the book bag for the student was searched at that point, after it was reported that he potentially had a weapon.”
No weapon was found in the student’s bag, but police say the student went on to shoot his first-grade teacher, Abigail Zwerner, shortly before 2 p.m.
The district began its own investigation into the shooting this week.
“Our investigation is to establish the root cause of the incident and whether any missteps were made regarding our established safety procedures,” Parker said.
As new details continue to emerge about the shooting, teachers and the wider Newport News community have expressed anger and frustration with the administration, and particularly Parker. In online forums and in letters sent to the superintendent and the school board, teachers say student behavior problems have been an ongoing issue for years, and have not been addressed adequately by administrators.
Cindy Connell, a teacher at Gildersleeve Middle School in Newport News, said she has witnessed incidents of students attacking school staff, as well as hearing accounts from friends at other schools. But she said consequences are often minimal, and teachers feel they are not heard.
“Our concerns are not taken seriously,” she said. “And the wheels of getting kids the help that we know they need are excruciatingly slow.”
Julianne Marse, an elementary school teacher at Newport News for 20 years and an administrator for 11, said she retired in 2019 because of student behavior concerns. She said one particular 6-year-old who was sent to her office daily would hit and kick her and damage her office regularly. She said she received no support from any of her superiors.
Though Parker met with Marse one on one when she retired, Marse — who remains in touch with many Newport News teachers — said nothing has changed.
“The bottom line is, these kids are terrorizing the classroom, causing the other kids not to be able to learn and stressing the teachers out,” Marse said. “The teachers have been crying out about this for years. And nothing’s being done about it.”
The school board held a special meeting Thursday to “discuss the performance of a specific officer.” No action was taken at the meeting, which was held in closed session. During a news conference Thursday afternoon addressing the shooting, Board Chair Lisa Surles-Law said changes would be made at the building site.
“Although we are not at liberty to state specifics after reviewing the preliminary results of the internal investigation, administrative changes have been proposed at Richneck Elementary,” she said.
During the town hall later that evening, Parker said that longtime Principal Karen Lynch — now a central office administrator — “will be leading our training and preparation activities for the Richneck staff moving forward.”
Some of the training will focus on school safety procedures, as well as behavior management approaches.
Additionally, school officials announced that Richneck would remain closed for at least another week as district officials work with teachers and gauge readiness to return.
But critics maintain that such changes are not adequate — a “Band-Aid” on a long-running problem.
James Fedderman, president of the Virginia Education Association, said the behavior problems teachers struggle with are not new.
“What you’re hearing now is just a continuation of things that they have experienced, even prior to COVID,” Fedderman said. “COVID, essentially, has exacerbated all of these issues that educators are having to deal with on a day-to-day basis.”
Fedderman said teachers are forced to deal with these challenges without support because of staff shortages and budget constraints that have stripped essential personnel from schools.
“So people are basically operating in ‘get-through’ mode, management-by-crisis,” he said.
Fedderman added that being able to identify the root cause of behaviors is essential.
“And many of these behaviors are not able to be identified, because we have stripped our budget so much that we have removed school social workers, we have removed home-school liaisons, we have removed all of the entities that seek to get at the problem, because of budgetary constraints,” he said.
James Graves, president of the Newport News Education Association, also said addressing behaviors and consequences should be the focus.
“If we take care of the behavior issue, we don’t have to worry about metal detectors,” he said.
The district announced Thursday it had secured funding, with the help of city officials, for 90 metal detectors to be placed at the schools.
Graves, who heard from teachers during a union meeting Wednesday, said “tensions are very high.” It’s important, he said, that procedures are clear and implemented correctly across all schools.
“We have to do what’s right, not only for the teachers and staff, but also for the students who are trying to do right,” he said. “They go to schools, too, the ones who are trying to make the grade, ones who are trying to keep their behavior straight, the ones who are coming to school and not doing anything wrong. We gotta pay attention to them, too.”
During the news conference Thursday, Surles-Law said the school board will conduct “a review of student conduct and discipline records, and behavior incidents, including those incidents that were elevated to central office, records of hearings and decisions made.”
“The school board is fully committed to restoring our teachers’, staff and community’s trust and confidence in the division, and to do the work that is needed to be done,” she said.
Connell is organizing teachers to express their concerns at Tuesday’s board meeting.
She said the district still has money from the federal COVID relief funds allocated to schools. Division officials have been surveying teachers on how to use the money.
“I think that half of that money can go to safety, and half of that money can go to addressing the mental health crisis, which is the underlying issue in all these recurring incidents.”
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