In her first interview since the shooting, Zwerner said that she couldn’t forget a look on the student’s face

The Shooting of a Virginia Elementary Teacher: “It’s No longer Safe, But You Can Get Out of Here,” Zwerner told NBC

The teacher who was shot by a student at her classroom in Virginia has spoken out for the first time, saying in an interview that she tried to stay positive.

A hospital spokesman confirmed that Zwerner was released last month. Zwerner cannot fully use her hand, which she had surgery on after the shooting, NBC reported.

“Some days are not-so-good days where I can’t get up out of bed,” she told NBC. Some days are better than others in that I can get out of bed and make it to my appointments. But from going through what I’ve gone through, I try to stay positive.”

The boy who shot Zwerner won’t be charged, according to the Newport News Commonwealth’s Attorney.

The family of a boy with an acute disability said in a statement that he was without a parent on the day of the shooting. We will not be around on this day for the rest of our lives.

Zwerner’s attorney, Diane Toscano, has alleged that concerned teachers and employees alerted administrators three times on the day of the shooting that the student had a gun and was threatening people. The administrators failed to act despite having knowledge of the danger, according to the alleged account by Toscano.

The fallout from the incident was swift, drawing harsh criticism from parents and leading the school board to vote to oust Superintendent George Parker III. Richneck Elementary’s assistant principal, Ebony Parker, resigned two weeks after the shooting and the principal, Briana Foster Newton, was reassigned to another school, though the district did not say where.

The school district told CNN that it could not comment on whether or not a potential gun was brought to school because that is part of an ongoing investigation.

Zwerner knew that she’d been shot, but her first thoughts were of the safety of her other students, since she’d gotten fragments of the bullet in her chest.

“I was terrified,” she said. “In that moment, my initial reaction was, ‘Your kids need to get out of here,’ you know? This classroom is no longer safe. I wanted to get my kids out of there.

Sometimes it’s hard to comprehend, but the support from family and strangers is truly inspiring.

The Discovery of a 17-year-old Student Revealed at a Park County High School on Wednesday, July 2 : Authorities determined Lyle had fled

“But I am following very closely the Newport News prosecutor to see what they do in this case and who they do charge, ultimately, if they do charge anybody.”

“My job is to hold those accountable that I can hold accountable,” Toscano said, “and I’m going to do that. Abby’s going to have to deal with this her entire life, both physically, emotionally.”

Indeed, Zwerner – who NBC reported could not get into details about what occurred prior to the shooting due to the potential litigation – is dealing not only with physical injuries, but emotional ones, too.

“I’m not sure when the shock will ever go away, because of just how surreal it was and you know, the vivid memories that I have of that day,” she said. I think about it a lot. Sometimes it’s a nightmare.

Officials said that a 17-year-old student opened fire at East High School, injuring two school administrators and causing hundreds of students to go into lockdown.

The suspect, later identified as Austin Lyle, fled the scene, police said. His car was found alongside a wooded road in nearby Park County on Wednesday evening, causing authorities to issue a shelter-in-place order for nearby areas.

Later on Wednesday, the Park County Sheriff’s Office said they found a body near the vehicle and lifted the shelter-in-place order, but it wasn’t until Thursday morning that the county coroner’s office confirmed the body was Lyle’s.

School Safety Officers and a High School Student who was Shot in the Anesthesiology Room at a Denver Public Radio/Denverite School

Local paramedics were already at the school to treat a student who suffered an allergic reaction and were able to quickly begin treating the two gunshot victims.

A spokesperson for Denver Health identified the administrators as Eric Sinclair, a dean of culture, and Jerald Mason, a restorative practice coordinator, according to Colorado Public Radio/Denverite. Sinclair remains in serious condition after undergoing surgery. Mason was discharged in stable condition.

A police spokesman said that they heard gunshots on the second floor when they arrived at the school. Officers went there, saw the assailant shooting, and two of the officers opened fire, killing the assailant at 10:27 a.m. in a “lobby-type area” on the second floor, Mr. Aaron said. The school does not have a police officer guarding it, he said.

Police declined to answer questions about how long Lyle was under the safety plan or the specific incidents that led to the plan, citing student privacy laws. They said the school didn’t find a weapon on him before.

Colorado Public Radio/Denverite reported that a school district source said that Lyle was thrown out of his high school for violating board policy.

The shooter at East High School, Denver, claimed to be a father of a student and armed with two assault-style weapons

Spring break begins in the following week. Two armed officers will stay at the school through the end of the year, as staff and the school board consider the steps to improve security, Marrero said.

In 2020, Denver’s public school system decided to remove its armed school resource officers, which had monitored the school campuses, out of concerns for the treatment of young students of color, according to Denverite.

There was a shooting at a school in the Green Hills neighborhood, where children had begun their final week of classes before Easter break, but no one was hurt.

Opened in the late 1800s as the first high school in Denver, East High is considered to be one of the top schools in the city, according to Colorado Public Radio’s Ben Markus.

“This should NEVER be a concern of a parent whether or not their child’s building is safe in their building,” he said from the campus grounds on Wednesday, shaking his head.

The shooter, who the police identified as Audrey E. Hale, had entered the building by firing through a side door, armed with two assault-style weapons and a handgun, according to John Drake, the chief of the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department, and went to the second floor, firing shots before being killed by the police. Chief Drake said that the assailant was “at one point a student” at the school.

The shooter is not known at this time. Hale graduated from Nossi College of Art & Design in Nashville last year, the president of the school confirmed to CNN, and a LinkedIn profile says Hale worked as a freelance graphic designer and a part-time grocery shopper.

As police work to piece together what led up to the violence, officials said they had determined where the shooter lived in the Nashville area and have interviewed Hale’s father. The scene at the school was expected to be processed Tuesday and investigators gathered more information about the 14 minutes of terror.

A New Nashville Police Chief and a New Victim, Hallie Scruggs, of a Lutheran School in St. Paul’s Circle

The police chief said during the news conference that he was moved to tears to see the children being ushered out of the building.

The police in Nashville identified the six victims as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney, all 9, and the adults as Cynthia Peak, 61, a substitute teacher; Mike Hill, 61, a custodian; and Katherine Koonce, 60. The school website said Dr. Koonce was the head of school. Hallie Scruggs was the daughter of Chad Scruggs, the pastor of Covenant Presbyterian Church, according to a biography published online by his former church in Dallas. Covenant Presbyterian is connected to the elementary school.

Shaundelle Brooks, who lost her son Akilah DaSilva during a 2018 mass shooting at a Nashville-area Waffle House, said she was brought back to that painful moment as her other son was placed on lockdown at a nearby school Monday.

The police chief said in a news conference that the person was prepared to do more harm than was actually done.

Three weapons – an AR-style rifle, an AR-style pistol and a handgun – were found and police believe Hale obtained at least two of the weapons legally, Drake said. A search warrant executed at Hale’s home also resulted in the seizure of a sawed-off shotgun, a second shotgun and other evidence, according to police.

Armed with three firearms, the shooter got into the elementary school by firing through a door, beginning an attack that unfolded over about 14 minutes and spanned two floors at the school.

A news release said that the shooter had fired through a window at arriving police cars. The shooter was killed by two officers at 10:27 a.m, according to the police.

The Nashville Elementary School in Shattered Enclave by Shooting: The Story of a Child Abducted by a Black Hole

“I was hoping this day would never ever come here in the city. Drake said in a Monday news conference that they will never hesitate to make entry and to stop a threat when it relates to our children.

“This school prepared for this with active shooter training for a reason. We aren’t sure if this will ever happen to us. Russ Pulley is a Nashville Metropolitan Councilman and he told CNN that experience has taught them that they need to be prepared.

The head of the school is identified on the website asKatherine Koonce, and she received her master’s degree from Georgia State University.

The staff section of the Covenant Presbyterian Church website was offline, and Mike Hill was identified in it. He worked as a facilities/ kitchen staff. A friend of Mike Hill confirmed his image to CNN. Police say that Hill was a custodian at the school.

Our community is devastated. Our school and church were destroyed by terror and we are in shock. We are focused on loving our students, our families, our faculty and staff and beginning the process of healing,” Covenant school said in a statement obtained by CNN affiliate WZTV.

The shooting shattered the wealthy enclave of Green Hills, a few miles south of downtown Nashville, where the small school and stone church sit atop a hill, nestled in a residential neighborhood filled with stately homes and lush landscaping. The Covenant Presbyterian Church founded the school in 2001 with 200 students and a teacher-to-student ratio of 8 to 1. Tuition costs around $16,000 per year.

Nashville Mayor John Cooper said he is “overwhelmed at the thought of the loss of these families, of the future lost by these children and their families.”

An Assailant Walks Through the Rooms and Hallways of a Music Lobby: The Nashville Shooting Was a Family’s Worst Horror

Homicide is leading cause of death for children in the United States and the overall rate has increased an average of 4.3% per year for a decade, according to a recent study.

The President Biden called the Nashville shooting a family’s worst nightmare and urged Congress to act on gun-control legislation. He has called for a ban on assault weapons when he’s been in the area, such as during his visit to Monterey Park, Calif. where 11 people were killed at a dance studio.

Wearing camouflage pants, a black vest and a backward red baseball cap, the assailant walks through rooms and hallways with a weapon drawn. At one point, the shooter is walking in and out of the church office and down the hallway past the children’s ministry, as the lights appear to be a fire alarm.

There was confusion about the gender identity of the assailant in the immediate aftermath of the attack. The shooter was identified as a female by Chief Drake. Officials used “she” and “her” to refer to the shooter, but, according to a social media post and a LinkedIn profile, the shooter appeared to identify as male in recent months.

Chief Drake said it was too early to discuss a possible motive for the shooting, though he confirmed that the attack was targeted. The authorities had been in contact with the father of the shooter, Chief Drake said.

We have a map out of how things are going to unfold, he said. “There’s right now a theory that we may be able to talk about later but it’s not confirmed, so we’ll put that out as soon as we can.”

Bringing families to safety after the school shooting: a conference-like room in the building where children were evacuated by a large crowd of young people

In the middle of a bright morning, sirens and helicopter noise sent residents out of their homes in anticipation of news about the shooting, or that their children had been allowed to leave their schools. A few women stood around a news conference, gasping and shaking their heads.

“It’s terrifying when you see parents running up the hill,” said Lisa DeBusk, 43, who lives in Green Hills. She said she had considered sending her daughter to Covenant, calling it “the sweetest, most wonderful place.”

School children and staff were escorted out of the building after the shooting, and a total of over 100 people were brought to a church, according to a Nashville Fire Department spokeswoman.

The pupils — dressed in the school uniform of red and black polo shirts, plaid skirts and khaki shorts and pants — held hands as they walked from the buses, escorted by the police, into a conference-like room inside the church. Parents gathered in the building to find out if their children were okay.

Rachael Anne Elrod, the Metro Nashville School Board chair, said she was inside “the worst waiting room you can imagine” as officials set about reuniting children with their parents. She said that a few people were talking about how to manage the rest of the day.

Ms. Elrod said that they were figuring out how they would talk to their children about this. Is the next best step? What should they do next? Do we want to get ice cream with them? Do you want them to go to the playground? Do we ask them what they saw? We should not ask them what they saw. Do we bring them to school tomorrow? Is there school tomorrow?

Rachel Dibble, whose children attend a different private school in Nashville, had also visited with Covenant families, some of whom she knew through youth sports.

Ms. Dibble said that the school shootings have to stop. “I want a politician to sit in a church with families and 250 kids downstairs that are white as a sheet and trembling and gray and yellow and green and blue because of the shock.”

Speaking of the students, she added: “They started this morning, they had their cute little uniforms on, they probably had some Froot Loops. Their lives have changed today.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/03/27/us/nashville-shooting-covenant-school/biden-calls-on-congress-to-pass-an-assault-weapons-ban-that-is-unlikely

What is a Mass Shooting? Investigating the Case for the 2023 Shootings at High Schools, according to the Gun Violence Archive

A mass shooting is different depending on the situation, and there’s no consensus on what constitutes one. But the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit research group that tracks gun violence using police reports, news coverage and other public sources, defines a mass shooting as one in which at least four people are killed or injured. As of late March, the archive has counted 130 mass shootings in the United States in 2023.

Shootings at elementary schools are also relatively uncommon, making up less than 20 percent of all incidents of gun violence on school grounds, according to the K-12 School Shooting Database. Most incidents of gun violence on school campuses, including active shooter incidents, happen at high schools.

The owner of a counseling ministry was mourning the loss of Dr. Koonce, whom she’d known through her work with children. Ms. Trevathan, who came with a therapy dog, said Dr. Koonce was magnetic and strong and had a passion for education and adventure.

Emily was reporting from Nashville. Jamie McGee contributed reporting from Nashville. Other people who contributed were Daniel Victor, Sarah Mervosh, Ruth Graham, Emily Schmall and Victoria Kim. Kirsten Noyes , Susan C. Beachy and Kitty Bennett contributed research.

An emergency medical facility in the Keck building where two people are killed, a spokesperson for the hospital says it is “disorganized and crowded”

Drake said the parents of the children who were killed have been notified. “I was literally moved to tears to see this and the kids as they were being ushered out of the building,” he said earlier.

At least five people were taken to the emergency departments. A spokesperson for the hospital confirmed to NPR that three children and two adults sent to the hospital had died.