Teacher shot at Newport News elementary school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Now it’s getting worse. It’s come out the teacher hasn’t been paid since February even though her contract goes until August. The school system tried in February to strong arm her into taking workman’s comp (which I assume would negate her argument re her lawsuit) so she refused and then they just stopped paying her.

This week, they fired her via email.

This entire case is just a $hitstorm. That poor woman. She’s had no income since February. None.

https://www.wavy.com/news/local-news/newport-news/newport-news-1st-grade-teacher-shot-by-student-was-fired-attorney-says/

If you don’t work, you don’t get paid. That’s how employment works. If she believes she is entitled to disability benefits, she needs to apply. It’s not automatic. You don’t just send someone a disability slip. There is a process that starts with affirmative action by the disabled employee. And, Most policies require six month waiting period, which means if she has coverage, and she applies and she qualifies, she will be eligible next month for benefits.

And, no matter how much her attorneys and she wants it to be otherwise, this falls squarely under workers’ comp. If she wants to try to prove otherwise, she’s not going to see paychecks for a few more years. In VA, you don’t get paid until you win after all appeals are exhausted.

Her attorneys are grandstanding and wanting to try to make new law - and she is bearing the financial burden. But she has options.

No matter how badly you want to throw this teacher under the bus, taking a bullet or removing a gun from a 1st grader is not a reasonable expectation or duty of being a 1st grade teacher. Just because the accident happened at work does NOT automatically make it a workman’s comp claim. Again, it’s not expected for a 1st grade teacher to take a bullet or to be shot in a school shooting by a 6 year old. Not for any 1st grade teacher.

Seriously.

It doesn’t have to be expected for it to be workers’ comp. The standard is arising out of and in the course of employment. I can think of a ton of other examples of bad things (some even worse than this) where the right to recovery is exclusively workers’ comp.

I’m not trying to throw the teacher under the bus at all. What happened is horrific. I hope she recovers physically, emotionally and vocationally. And I hope a full root cause analysis is done. But the right to a legal recovery isn’t based on the level of horrificness of the event. It’s based on the law. And the law is just not what she (and you, apparently) want that law to be.

I actually am appalled at the attorneys in this case. To me it seems like they have an agenda and she is the mechanism to achieve their goals. I mean, any trace of respect I had all but vanished when they blamed the school for not providing disability benefits to her while all but admitting she never applied. If she is truly destitute and those benefits are available, why haven’t they assisted in the application?

Again, I am truly horrified at these events. I am truly horrified that there are no services for such a disturbed 6 year old so the school was stuck with him. I am truly horrified that this disturbed kid had access to a gun and that the mother’s attorney’s statements about gun safety mechanisms appears not to be true.

In Virginia, in order for this to qualify as workman’s comp the commission would need to find that a first grade teacher getting shot by one of her students was a part of her duties and whether the activity of being shot is an accepted and normal activity within her employment and the extent to which the employer expects or required the employees to participate.

Sweetie, If we aren’t preparing to get shot at as part of our normal duties, why do we have lock down and active shooter drills?

it is part of our normal activities within our employment. We prepare ourselves and your kid to get shot at.

You prepare for active shooter drills where the shooter is a 6yr old student?

Nope. If this were part of your normal duties 1) you’d be trained on how to disarm a 6 yr old, 2) be trained on how to search a 6 yr old for a gun, and 3) there would never have been any push back from the vice principal on whether or not to search the 6 yr old bc you’d be trained on what to do.

Does not check out.

Yes we do- we watch a mandatory training video that states things like school shootings can often be prevented by staff members who receive tips that a student has a weapon. Or that staff should be aware of the signs that a student is having mental and emotional
Health issues so we can prevent school shootings.
Absolutely we are told this. Disarming isn’t the first step ask any law enforce person I’m sure they can help you understand about escalation. Swat team approaches are not the first line of defense.

Well in this case people were alerted and very aware of this issues and they didn’t do enough so it goes beyond workers comp

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Now it’s getting worse. It’s come out the teacher hasn’t been paid since February even though her contract goes until August. The school system tried in February to strong arm her into taking workman’s comp (which I assume would negate her argument re her lawsuit) so she refused and then they just stopped paying her.

This week, they fired her via email.

This entire case is just a $hitstorm. That poor woman. She’s had no income since February. None.

https://www.wavy.com/news/local-news/newport-news/newport-news-1st-grade-teacher-shot-by-student-was-fired-attorney-says/

If you don’t work, you don’t get paid. That’s how employment works. If she believes she is entitled to disability benefits, she needs to apply. It’s not automatic. You don’t just send someone a disability slip. There is a process that starts with affirmative action by the disabled employee. And, Most policies require six month waiting period, which means if she has coverage, and she applies and she qualifies, she will be eligible next month for benefits.

And, no matter how much her attorneys and she wants it to be otherwise, this falls squarely under workers’ comp. If she wants to try to prove otherwise, she’s not going to see paychecks for a few more years. In VA, you don’t get paid until you win after all appeals are exhausted.

Her attorneys are grandstanding and wanting to try to make new law - and she is bearing the financial burden. But she has options.

According to her attorney, she sent the doctor's letter about her disability to the school district and never received a response to start the process:

Breit said she should have at least received disability.

“Newport News has a disability program that I know some teachers have received when they have been disabled,” Breit said, “get paid while they are out. She has not received a single response to the disability letter from her doctor.”

This school district is a hot mess. It's as if they have no legal counsel.

+1 I'll say it again -- I'll be very surprised if that child had a formal IEP with a signed by all parties change regarding parent/no parent in the classroom every day.

Same. I'm a teacher and I've never heard of a parent being required to attend school with their child.

Exactly. And one of the many reasons for that is that apples do not fall far from trees.

Well, no. It’s because if a child requires a 1:1 aide that aide has to be special education certified and parents are not. This is not a legal accommodation, it was some nonsense agreement between admin and parent.

[Anonymous]

We take it every year. It is slightly more than hide in the corner, but gives flags that teachers should look for about student behavior to prevent school shootings. It also talks about fleeing, but is very soft on that topic, like some schools may recommend this, you need to check with your principal. If the argument is that it is never expected to have a school shooting or a student shooter, we wouldn’t have to be mandated by the state of Virginia to have drills and take the stupid yearly training in that very matter. Is your argument that we aren’t trained enough? Is your argument that it isn’t a daily threat and it has to be to count for workers comp? Is your argument that only people who learn to fight back are “trained?”
I think people want to put their heads in the sand and say that teachers and kids don’t face this in school and that this is an anomaly, but reality is that teachers take yearly training in this and that your kid does active shooter drills. What about that means that no one expects a gun to be in a school and that it shouldn’t be a workers comp issue? Explain to me how we simultaneously accept that this is an issue, give instruction and training about it and then say it isn’t part of the job.

It seems like in this case the school system is getting ready to argue that they do have it both ways—that minimal training for weapons response is adequate (despite the fact that the teacher followed protocol and reported it, repeatedly), and that a grossly unusual intervention (a parent accompanying a child in the classroom) was adequate for the child’s violent behavioral issues.

[Anonymous]

I’m a teacher and refuse any training that requires me to give medical intervention to anyone. I don’t need to be sued.

[Anonymous]

https://wtop.com/virginia/2023/08/a-6-year-old-said-i-did-it-after-shooting-his-teacher-at-virginia-school-warrants-say/

"In the moments after a 6-year-old shot his teacher in a Virginia classroom last January, the boy made statements including “I shot that (expletive) dead,” and “I did it. I got my mom’s gun last night,”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://wtop.com/virginia/2023/08/a-6-year-old-said-i-did-it-after-shooting-his-teacher-at-virginia-school-warrants-say/

"In the moments after a 6-year-old shot his teacher in a Virginia classroom last January, the boy made statements including “I shot that (expletive) dead,” and “I did it. I got my mom’s gun last night,”

Just read the article.

Kid is a sociopath. Mom is taking the easy way out and I cannot blame her.

[Anonymous]

Mom and child should be charged for attempted murder and aiding abetting

[Anonymous]

Where is the boy now? What does the road ahead look like for him?

Is the mother in custody?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where is the boy now? What does the road ahead look like for him?

Is the mother in custody?

It appears the mother is not in custody, and is out on bail.

Here are a couple of useful links (not just for this case, but for any person/case you'd like to look up)

https://eapps.courts.state.va.us/ocis/search
You can search a person by name for the entire state of VA. Even things like speeding tickets, not having proper vehicle registration, and dog leash violations should appear in this search.

https://vinelink.vineapps.com/search/VA/Person
Here you can search by name to see if a person is currently in custody.

[Anonymous]

Mother has her sentencing August 15.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mother has her sentencing August 15.

Great. Where is the child?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mother has her sentencing August 15.

Great. Where is the child?

I believe living with his grandfather.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mother has her sentencing August 15.

Great. Where is the child?

I believe living with his grandfather.

Homeschooled? I would hope so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mother has her sentencing August 15.

Great. Where is the child?

I believe living with his grandfather.

Homeschooled? I would hope so.

The child should be in juvi or a fully committed to a mental rehabilitation center

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mother has her sentencing August 15.

Great. Where is the child?

I believe living with his grandfather.

Homeschooled? I would hope so.

The child should be in juvi or a fully committed to a mental rehabilitation center

There’s no juvi for six year olds. He should be required to have extensive therapy and schooling in a special school.