VA- 6-YEAR-OLD is in custody after shooting teacher

[georgiajean]

I work in schools, I have been a 1-1 assistant for severe behavior needs, the type of students who run, who bite/kick, who destroy rooms. I have seen instances where a parent/guardian was required to be with a child on field trips, special events, etc. I have had students with severe anxiety who would not stay in school without a parent present. I have never seen a parent's presence as a requirement for attendance, in 30 years. The liability of having a parent on campus with a child would be tremendous (if something happens, is it the parent's responsibility or the school's? i.e. the child hurts themselves, or hurts someone else while the parent is there...). But if the child needed to have a parent present as part of the care plan, WHO said it was OK for the child to be in school WITHOUT the parent?

And I still am mystified by the search of the backpack for a gun. WHO alerted the school? WHO searched and ok'd the child's presence in the classroom? Balls were dropped here, likely many. Thankful no one lost their life that day,, though so many lives were forever changed.

 

[Simply Southern]

I work in schools, I have been a 1-1 assistant for severe behavior needs, the type of students who run, who bite/kick, who destroy rooms. I have seen instances where a parent/guardian was required to be with a child on field trips, special events, etc. I have had students with severe anxiety who would not stay in school without a parent present. I have never seen a parent's presence as a requirement for attendance, in 30 years. The liability of having a parent on campus with a child would be tremendous (if something happens, is it the parent's responsibility or the school's? i.e. the child hurts themselves, or hurts someone else while the parent is there...). But if the child needed to have a parent present as part of the care plan, WHO said it was OK for the child to be in school WITHOUT the parent?

And I still am mystified by the search of the backpack for a gun. WHO alerted the school? WHO searched and ok'd the child's presence in the classroom? Balls were dropped here, likely many. Thankful no one lost their life that day,, though so many lives were forever changed.

I do not think the family stated being with the child was a requirement. I agree, school administrators would need to approve.

I've racked my brain, trying to think of justification for having a parent in class for two weeks and I come up with nothing.

Yes, the teacher did not loose her life, but the injury could leave her with disabilities or shorten her life span. Her whole life has been disrupted, her hopes, her dreams.

Moo...

 

[shotgun09]

New news to me:
RSBUBM

"Ellenson told The Associated Press by phone Thursday evening that his understanding is that the gun was in the mother’s closet on a top shelf that was well over six feet high. The weapon also had a trigger lock that requires a key, similar to a bike lock.

Regarding how the child may have gotten access to the gun, Ellenson said: “We don’t know.”

Lawyer: 6-year-old who shot teacher has ‘acute disability’

The family’s statement was released by an attorney and did not elaborate further on where the 9mm handgun was kept.

www.witn.com

 

[shotgun09]

From the article posted ^:

" Ellenson said the plan was what is known as an “individualized education program” or IEP, which is provided to students with disabilities under federal law. When asked if the disability was intellectual or behavioral, Ellenson said it was “all of the above.”

Ellenson said the boy’s parents had been accompanying him to class for a number of weeks. He said he believes that a parent would sit with him during class “on occasion.”

“And then I guess it was a joint decision between the school and the parents that this was no longer necessary,” Ellenson said. "

Lawyer: 6-year-old who shot teacher has ‘acute disability’

The family’s statement was released by an attorney and did not elaborate further on where the 9mm handgun was kept.

www.witn.com

 

[mickey2942]

Lot of mystery here. The problem I see is that this is not an anomaly. Children have trauma, and parents are pulled every which way, the ones working, need to keep their jobs. The ones not working have their own health issues or other problems. I don't blame parents, teachers, schools, children or guns. It is a multi faceted problem, and not getting any better. These school shootings are so common...

 

[airportwoman]

That parents of other children in the class, or even the school, don't appear to be publicly speaking out also suggests strongly to me that the child has been in some kind of state custody.

 

[shotgun09]

What is most glaring to me, is the attorney for the family getting a jump on the story before /or in the lack of any arrests. Both LE and the school were very closed mouth and protective when it came to the family and the boy. Very little info has been released. Suddenly we now have a mouthpiece blaring to the AP no less, stating 'new' facts and spinning stories. MOO

"Objects in the mirror may be closer than they appear"

 

[Alethea]

I had been following this in the news but today's release piqued my curiosity and wanted to see what everyone here thinks. For many years my pro bono work was fighting the NYC Dept of Education to get IEPs for kids who were denied them. I have never seen, or heard of, an IEP that required a parent attend. IMO it would violate the right to a free appropriate public education. It's not "free and public" if a parent is supervising. I can't even think of an underlying diagnosis that would REQUIRE a parent and not a 1:1 aide. Even with safety concerns I have not heard of a parent being required to attend.

What do the educators or child development folks here think? Is this common elsewhere? What would require a parent, specifically, attend?

 

[evilwise]

I often am at the forefront of asking for parental responsibility for juvenile gun crime but I'm also not going to dismiss in hand the parents claim that the gun was secured. I consider my own handgun safe, which is digital but also has a hidden keyhole that if located could be picked pretty easily, it only has two tumblers. If I had a severely disabled child, I wouldn't imagine that they could locate and pick that lock - but at the same time, it wouldn't be impossible.

 

[TLobo]

MOO - I've wondered if maybe the school didn't have a 1:1 para/aide/TA/etc available (or willing?) to be with this student, so the parents were asked (or volunteered?) to accompany him and be that adult dedicated to managing his behavior in the classroom.

(This is currently an issue in my child's 1st grade classroom - a classmate with significant behavioral issues [though nonviolent, as far as I know], but either no money or no applicants for a 1:1. Instead, their saint of a teacher is on her own. I can't imagine his school asking parents to step in, though - surely they'd have to be background checked and all that, to be in the building full-time?)

 

[alex dvport]

I had been following this in the news but today's release piqued my curiosity and wanted to see what everyone here thinks. For many years my pro bono work was fighting the NYC Dept of Education to get IEPs for kids who were denied them. I have never seen, or heard of, an IEP that required a parent attend. IMO it would violate the right to a free appropriate public education. It's not "free and public" if a parent is supervising. I can't even think of an underlying diagnosis that would REQUIRE a parent and not a 1:1 aide. Even with safety concerns I have not heard of a parent being required to attend.

What do the educators or child development folks here think? Is this common elsewhere? What would require a parent, specifically, attend?

I have never seen an IEP that required parent attendance in classes with the child. If a child needs 1:1, an aide is assigned. If, someone wrote that parent attendance in class be required for the student, they would have had to add an amendment to change that portion of the IEP. It would be illegal to just mutually decide to not require parent attendance. I’m wondering if the attorney for the parents has it wrong, and the child didn’t have an IEP. Maybe the child had a behavior plan? With the very limited information being shared in this case, it’s all jmo.

 

[fred&edna]

New news to me:
RSBUBM

"Ellenson told The Associated Press by phone Thursday evening that his understanding is that the gun was in the mother’s closet on a top shelf that was well over six feet high. The weapon also had a trigger lock that requires a key, similar to a bike lock.

Regarding how the child may have gotten access to the gun, Ellenson said: “We don’t know.”

Lawyer: 6-year-old who shot teacher has ‘acute disability’

The family’s statement was released by an attorney and did not elaborate further on where the 9mm handgun was kept.

www.witn.com

Isn't it strange that the attorney's answer to the most important question is, "We don't know".

I wonder if anyone asked WHY this child intended to shoot his teacher?

 

[shotgun09]

Isn't it strange that the attorney's answer to the most important question is, "We don't know".

I wonder if anyone asked WHY this child intended to shoot his teacher?

Indeed! It's a mystery before our very eyes!

Why, it's as if it's a game of Clue?!!



Just sayin here out loud....my three year old grand can figure out how to pull up a chair or a small table to climb up to regions where he shouldn't venture. A closet shelf in a bedroom doesn't sound at all secure enough to place a lethal weapon, when you add the boy's history ( Per Ellenson) of " Intellectual and Behavioral Disabilities" . Dude, please. MOO

 

[Stunned]

I had been following this in the news but today's release piqued my curiosity and wanted to see what everyone here thinks. For many years my pro bono work was fighting the NYC Dept of Education to get IEPs for kids who were denied them. I have never seen, or heard of, an IEP that required a parent attend. IMO it would violate the right to a free appropriate public education. It's not "free and public" if a parent is supervising. I can't even think of an underlying diagnosis that would REQUIRE a parent and not a 1:1 aide. Even with safety concerns I have not heard of a parent being required to attend.

What do the educators or child development folks here think? Is this common elsewhere? What would require a parent, specifically, attend?

I’ve seen it in a Kindergarten in North Carolina. I know the child was extremely violent. I don’t know who came up with the parent staying with them. But they were the ones with him.

 

[Arkay]

I’ve seen it in a Kindergarten in North Carolina. I know the child was extremely violent. I don’t know who came up with the parent staying with them. But they were the ones with him.

I've not seen this In my career, but my 8th grade students were 13 and 14, sometimes 15. Very different, IMO, than a parent accompanying a kindergartener.

At a young age, kids are usually excited when their parents are in the classroom, on special occasions or escorting a class trip. I know this, not from my teaching career, but as a young mother and now a grandmother.

For my 8th graders, what I recall about mandated parental accompaniment was strictly OUTSIDE the classroom. If there was a child who consistently got in trouble all year---not a child with an IEP, just a child who was trying to be a perpetual wiseguy---then they were often banned from graduation time privileges.

I've seen multiple occasions where the principal banned children from attending graduation ceremonies, and/or attending prom, and/or going on the senior trip. Occasionally the principal would say the child could attend IF and only IF the parent/guardian were present.

I recall a couple of kids whose parent did come along, but for most younger teenagers that would be humiliating and so they lost out on these much-coveted privileges.

Just my experiences.

 

[Observant-ADHD-ENFP-BSc]

MOO - I've wondered if maybe the school didn't have a 1:1 para/aide/TA/etc available (or willing?) to be with this student, so the parents were asked (or volunteered?) to accompany him and be that adult dedicated to managing his behavior in the classroom.

(This is currently an issue in my child's 1st grade classroom - a classmate with significant behavioral issues [though nonviolent, as far as I know], but either no money or no applicants for a 1:1. Instead, their saint of a teacher is on her own. I can't imagine his school asking parents to step in, though - surely they'd have to be background checked and all that, to be in the building full-time?)

AFAIK, In Canada, to volunteer in school you have to be police checked, even if you are a parent volunteering for one field trip, so for a parent to be checked to be with the child in the classroom it wouldn't be any different. I am not sure of how it works in the U.S.?

 

[Observant-ADHD-ENFP-BSc]

When I worked as a Pre-School supervisor in the early 00s in the UK, we worked with 3 and 4-year-olds who couldn't get a place in the public school nursery class or wanted a private nursery school. We did have several students with different levels of disabilities, mental, behavioural, and physical, and it was pretty typical for a parent to stay with them the first few weeks, by then we would know if we could handle it without the parent or if unfortunately, we wouldn't be able to take the child as a student. (It was not mandated schooling, so there were no laws to follow for providing a TA or SEN for the child.)
Only once did we have to say no and the parent agreed. We stayed in contact and the child came to the nursery once a week for one session with the mother, who volunteered as a helper.
Once when the mother was cutting up fruit for the children in the kitchen, just before snack time I was sitting with her child and another child, whom they both knew from out of nursery, at the playdoh table. The child reached across the table and grabbed the friends cheek in their fist. I told them to stop and let go of friends face, but they ignored me as if they had not heard me and just smiled whilst twisting the friends cheek, it was awful! I stood up to physically try and remove the child's hand from their friends cheek and suddenly the mother was there.
They only sporadically came back after.
This was a long time ago and I have followed the mother on SM and the child was eventually diganosed as ASD, attended a seperate school with great faciclities and eventually went to college and got a job.

 

[evilwise]

In Ohio, if you buy a used gun from a gun dealer there's a law that it has to be locked or something along those lines and they put the cheapest most joke of a trigger lock on it I've ever seen - like, clearly something that was manufactured to meet the legal definition of a "lock" with no practical intention to reliably secure the weapon. Literally any small key (or a screwdriver or a butter knife) would open it and it would probably break off if you dropped the gun on it.

 

[Hexe]

Yes. I doubt the claim that the gun was secured. If a gun can be accessed, and a loaded one at that, by a 6-yr old, it was NOT secured in my opinion.

Well, I have another issue here. Either that gun was put under trigger lock and on the shelf with the safety off, or someone shown this kid how to switch the safety off. I'd say leaving your gun with the safety off is not very secure, not only because of children, an adult can easily shot themseves or someone else too.

Another thing is, if that kid smuggled the gun in the school not in his backpack, but by sticking it behind his trousers, well, two issues with that scenario. First: either the gun had the safety off and he was taught how to shoot, or he was lucky he did not shoot his rear off by accident. Second: did this severely disabled kid undress himself in the school? Because anyone helping him would discover the gun imediately. Something does not stick together in that story.

 

[x_files]

Well, even if you saw a child draw a picture of him killing a teacher, and saying he was going to "shoot a teacher", at age six, that would be considered "disturbing", but not necessarily a "threat". I would consider that something to be monitored, but I doubt anyone would be checking a backpack every day. Especially at age six. Age 16, yes...

Perhaps, that should be re-evaluated.

Yay, next week is "Active Shooter"/Shelter in Place and "Narcan" training. At work. 35 years ago, we had training on "positive teaching". Now, we get training on "active shooters". Things have changed.

I would reevaluate the situation.
As we know children even toddlers are capable of shooting someone accidentally. Terrifying huh?