Virginia Elementary School Shooting Revealed to Be a Preventable Fiasco

What a mess, and it was a preventable one. Earlier this year, the shooting at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia, shocked the nation, especially when it was revealed that the suspect, a six-year-old, intentionally shot his teacher, who blessedly survived the incident. Abby Zwerner evacuated her students to safety while wounded, collapsing from blood loss, trying to signal bystanders for help. She has filed a $40 million lawsuit against the school district for negligence.

The student who shot her had a history of acting up at school, with disturbing accounts of the youngster telling his peers he wanted to set teachers on fire. And yet, nothing was done, reportedly due to a lack of additional resources to help this kid. How he could get in possession of a firearm was a lingering question. The shooter’s mother, Deja Taylor, was slapped with gun charges on June 5. Today, she’s pleading guilty, including lying on the background check form when she purchased the weapon (via WaPo):

The mother of a 6-year-old boy who shot a teacher at Virginia’s Richneck Elementary School in January pleaded guilty to federal gun charges Monday, and a filing by prosecutors appears to undercut her lawyer’s assertion that the gun used in the shooting was safely stored.
Deja Taylor, 26, of Newport News, Va., pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of being an illegal drug user while possessing a firearm and one count of falsely claiming she did not smoke marijuana on the background check form she filled out when she purchased the handgun her son used in the shooting. Federal law prohibits users of illegal drugs from possessing a firearm, and purchasers have to attest they are not drug users at the time they buy a gun.
Under the terms of the plea deal, prosecutors agreed to recommend that Taylor face between 18 to 24 months in prison when she is sentenced — though that is not binding on the judge. She is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 18. Taylor faces a second set of charges in state court that have yet to be resolved.
The case drew national attention because of the young age of the shooter, and sparked outcry in Newport News over whether administrators did enough to prevent it. Abby Zwerner, the first-grade teacher who was gravely wounded in the incident, filed a $40 million lawsuit against Richneck administrators and other Newport News school officials, alleging that an assistant principal ignored at least three warnings from teachers and school employees that the boy had a gun on the day of the shooting.
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…federal prosecutors wrote in a statement of facts filed with the plea deal that investigators found no lock box, trigger lock or trigger lock key during a search of Taylor’s residences following the shooting. Authorities did find a firearm barrel lock in a trash bag that had been filled a few weeks before the shooting at one of Taylor’s homes, according to the statement of facts.
Taylor admitted to being a marijuana user for 11 years and to lying about her drug use when she purchased the handgun at a Yorktown, Va. gun shop in July 2022, according to the statement of facts. A search of her purse, a car and rooms at residences she shared with her mother and father turned up large amounts marijuana and drug paraphernalia, federal prosecutors wrote.