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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]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/[/quote]

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. [/quote]

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. [/quote]

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. [/quote]

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. [/quote]

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.  [/quote]

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. [/quote]

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. 
[/quote]
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[/quote]

+1[/quote]

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