Grand Jury Finds Multiple Failures in School Where Student Shot His Teacher

More than a year ago, a six-year-old in Virginia took a gun to school and shot his teacher. The teacher survived, and the court system has been active ever since. The teacher filed a civil lawsuit, and the child's mother is serving two years in jail for felony child neglect. Most recently, authorities have charged the assistant principal with criminal child neglect for failure to do more to protect the other children in the classroom. The grand jury report, released a few weeks ago, notes several ways in which the assistant principal allegedly failed to protect other children in the classroom.

According to the report, the assistant principal ignored four different warnings that the child had brought a gun to school. One teacher searched his backpack but didn't find the weapon, and the assistant principal did no other follow up on the reports. These charges represent a novel interpretation of Virginia's child abuse statutes that all YSO administrators in the state need to pay attention to.

The grand jury report also highlighted several other problems that, while not part of the criminal charges, no doubt will play a large role in civil claims. First, the school had a physical security system, but it had not been working for quite a while. Second, the school had several policies, such as periodic lockdown drills, but no records of having followed those policies. Third, the school required the student's parents to be present at all times, but (a) allowed him to attend without them on the day of the shooting, and (b) never conducted a criminal background check of the parents. Finally, the child's file (and only the child's file) was mysteriously missing from the records area when police began their investigation.

All of these failures happen when YSOs get so caught up in the day-to-day emergencies of serving youth that they forget policies that seem less urgent.  The school's written policies seem to have been adequate, but the implementation, according to the grand jury, created an unsafe environment. The lesson here for YSOs is to be sure that you follow your policies, and that you make them a part of your organizational culture.