The teacher is suing the school district for $40M, saying “the school’s former assistant principal and other administrators ignored pleas from staff members to search the boy for a gun.”
Virginia Teacher Shot by 6-Year-Old Student Sues School Officials for $40 Million - WSJ
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Makes sense I hope she gets more. It’s not about the money, it’s about being responsible and making it harder for someone to be safe in schools. They would rather go in the other direction. Trying to make people think they are safe.
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I may have an unpopular view. I have no issue with the Mother being charged for actual crimes she may have committed, such as endangering a minor, or for unsafe storage. I have a big problem with her being charged for crimes based on someone else’s actions. There are more than adequate enough laws for them to punish with
I am more worried about the Pandora’s Box that gets opened if they go for some big splashy trial. With the outrage from this I feel like they could stretch unnecessarily for charges that set a precedent. This is also happening with the Highland Park shooters father. There are more than enough accessory charges that can be used without trying to charge for murder.
This may be clear cut criminal liability in this case. But you know at some point this precedent will be used incorrectly. But do we really want to set a precedent where someone is being charged with a murder that someone else committed.
Say we want this parent to be in prison for the rest of their life. That can be done by charging correctly, 100 misdemeanors run consecutively is 100 years. 1 murder sentence for 100 years is still 100 years. But one doesn’t set a precedent for pre-crime cases, one does.
I feel pretty sure they could charge the Virginia parent with child endangerment 1 count per 1 child attending the school. Run the sentences consecutively and you get just as long a sentence than reaching for a splashier charge that opens a Pandora’s Box
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I see your point and it’s fair. I understand where you are coming from…imo until a child is grown enough to be responsible for their actions, the parent should be held responsible. How does a parent being responsible lead to a 6 yo obtaining a loaded firearm, transporting it to school, and attempting to murder a teacher? It doesn’t, and in my opinion, it’s about damn time the parents of children that execute these atrocious acts be held accountable. As far as what the charges are, 50 grapes balance an apple. I don’t care what they are, but there needs to be something. Maybe after there’s a few examples, parents will start parenting like our parents did… how it should be done. Instead of making excuses, turning blind eyes, handing out participation trophies, and teaching children that violence is the solution to a problem. My father taught me that excuses are pointless and I’m responsible for everything I do or don’t do, that you should be the person to never turn a blind eye to wrongdoing, he taught me how to lose and take it like a man, and that you don’t cause violence but if violence comes knocking you better answer the door and shand up for yourself…less you end up a doormat. Where is that now? I don’t see it very often, does anyone else? Furthermore, if she can sue the district, she better be going after the parents civilly too.
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In this specific instance, and I am only referring to the shooting in Virginia of a teacher by a 6 y/o student. The school has some pretty specific liability. The 6 y/o was reported to them on at least 2 separate and specific times of the 6 y/o having a firearm on his person.
Virginia has existing laws as it pertains to that incident. They can prosecute, using the existing laws, and not set pre crime precedents. Virginia has safe storage laws.
It only takes 1 time for the full oppressive weight of the Justice System to be used against you. For you to be glad that we have the Constitutional protections we have.
What you are talking about requires a strength of will by politicians to use the existing law. There are plenty of tools in existence right now. They just need to use it.
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This is fact, but what is the root cause? What is the one thing, that if done differently, would have prevented anything from happening? Who is responsible for that one thing?
I’m not so sure that is an easy question. Did the parents diligently lock their firearms up every single night for six years but mistakenly not secure it this one time? Or did they leave it on their nightstand all the time where the 6 year old could access it whenever they wanted? If they did the later did they diligently teach their child to be responsible around firearms and the child proved responsible until this incident?
Lots of variables to consider. I think charging the parents with murder is a slippery slope. Charging them with gross negligence and or child endangerment seems appropriate if their actions were truly negligent and it wasn’t a rare tragic mistake on their part. Even the best of humans aren’t perfect all of the time.
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Hi Levi2. How you doing?
I see your points, I concur. Thank you. May I add, I’m not supporting the parents per se, I think “accountability” is the right thing to do.
For those of us who might have made a mistake, not as big is theirs, small - but went unpunished, it’s how we react, behave, learn and change after said error that can make us a better person, and be even more responsible, especially when someone loved us so much, they forgive us.
Today, in this string, “I’m a pair of brown shoes, amongst tuxedos”.
Stay cool.
Right now, there is not enough information. I am taking my entirely predictable position of individual responsibility. If there was proof of criminal malfeasance you have to think that the Mother would be indicted or charged.
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Yes. Thorough investigation by the authorities of course.
I would say the root cause is the parents. Had they have been responsible with the firearm, it would have not been accessible to the child. If one owns firearms, regardless of if you have children or not, you are responsible for those firearms 100% of the always. Us in this forum aren’t “responsibly armed citizens” most of the sometimes. Hopefully we are all well aware of the repercussions of being irresponsible with our firearms. I will leave out parenting as I am not a parent, and would only be speculating. I have parents though, and I know that when I was a child, if I even looked at a firearm without my dad there or without his permission, I rued the day. I’ll leave that there.
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I am well, how are you? I appreciate your input, and agree that mistakes are life’s greatest teacher. I had this whole thing typed up, but I think I’ll save it for a time I’m not on the internet for a billion people to see. I’m really fed up with the violence, lack of accountability, and acceptance of circumstance that’s plaguing the country currently.
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You seem to hold 2 separate but disparate view points. In the thread about the police being at the wrong address.
Then for the mother who may have or may not have committed a crime you seem awfully ready to burn her at the cross.
I can understand having divergent beliefs. But this could (notice the qualifiers, I am not advocating for her one way or the other) very well be someone who rigorously kept her handgun safely stored and made a mistake.
I only mention that because reactions before all of the evidence is known leads us (society as a whole) to react emotionally and give up very important rights and safeguards in the interest of security or convicting someone of something that will come back to haunt us.
I can list dozens of instances of this but I do not want you to feel attacked as that is not my intent. My intent is to let it be investigated before we start actions that can not be undone.
I’m sure the Democratic Party leadership, in their minds, had their reasons for removing duly elected representatives from their Committees when they removed Greene, and Gosar. But look at what happened when Republicans regained the majority. Omar, Swalwell, and Schiff were rousted from their Committee’s. Tit for Tat is a 0 sum game.
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Two very different circumstances. To me, this is not an apples to apples comparison. A six year old getting a firearm and attempting to murder a teacher because she scolded him is not on the same spectrum as cops on alert showing up to a house they think is the location of domestic violence and being confronted with a firearm. One is clearly an attempt at cold blooded murder facilitated by the lack of responsibility as a legal guardian, and the other is in my opinion, a compilation of ■■■■ on both sides that led to a death. I don’t know all the facts to either case, but I would like you to tell me how the kid got the gun for an attempt at cold blooded murder if the parent is not directly at fault. Is he a safe cracker, real life Stewie Griffin, or a magician?
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See, this is a proper usage of existing laws, no need to distort our criminal justice system.
Judges can send a message using existing law by just sentencing a defendant to consecutive sentences. In 2015 a Judge sent a very clear message he gave James Holmes 12 consecutive life sentences without a chance for parole, plus an additional 3,300 + years.
He is the Aurora Colorado Shooter.
Full disclosure I am exchanging messages with @Levi2. I agree with his position. I just don’t want our Justice System to set precedents when there are existing laws that will accomplish what we as a society may want.
This is the exact same position I have for gun control. There is no need to punish law abiding citizens when there are over 20,000 existing laws on the book for gun crimes. What is or has been lacking is the political will to use existing laws.
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Add to this, a recent spike in hoaxes.
Fake 911 Calls About Active Shooters Are Hitting More Schools - WSJ
Some of these get pretty hairy. Police respond as quickly as possible, so they can enter a school to clear it long before anyone realizes it’s a prank. There was even one incident in the article where police crashed their car into the school’s locked doors to gain entry (a lesson from Uvalde, perhaps?).
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Whoever’s doing this should face some serious jail time. Depending on the size of the school it should add up to several hundred or more counts of child endangerment per fake call.
I read in another article that some of the calls originated from outside the US. Foreign actors seeking to raise fear and division to further destabilize our country? Or acting to help the anti self defense crowd succeed in disarming US citizens?
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Makes me wonder. In the past leaders of other countries have expressed the concern about how many guns are in the hands of American Citizens when talking about coming over here and taking over. SO if I can get your government to disarm you my job get’s much easier? One needs only to look to the Ukraine to see how effective armed civilians are.
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My first thought was that it was students trying to skip class, like kids did when I was in school. But in the article I shared, some of the calls are pretty sophisticated, using sound effects to sound legitimate, and masking the phone number so they can’t be traced (which should have been made illegal a long time ago). That gives some credence to the idea that they’re being done by foreign actors or someone with more nefarious purposes.
One of the more unsettling theories in the article is that they’re done by potential killers who are watching the police response.
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