The six year old who shot his teacher

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Along with the Christa Pike story, there has been another one circulating, the one where the video footage from when a 6-year-old boy shot his teacher. It wasn't an accident; the child knew what he was doing, and the mouth on him was insane. He was shouting and cussing, and I just can't imagine a child that age speaking that way. There are people going off about how that child is a little thug and saying he deserved more than what he got. Here's the thing: he is a child. He didn't come into the world knowing those things. He was taught. He was clearly in a situation he shouldn't be in. He was so young that there was still time to get him help, and from what I've read, it looks like he got that help. His great-grandfather is now raising him. Children learn from their surroundings. His mother was sent to prison over the situation as she should be, although in my opinion she should have had more time than the I think it was two years she got. A six-year-old may know what he's doing on some level, but isn't old enough to fully understand the ramifications of it. He only knows what he's exposed to. The woman in that video who is holding him and speaking to him as though he didn't just do what he did deserves a medal. That boy could have killed his teacher and nearly did. The teacher he shot had to step down from teaching for medical reasons after that and will have medical issues for the rest of her life because of this child, or maybe I should say because of the adults who failed that child. I have so many thoughts about this situation as someone who works in a school and who has to deal with the actions of children on a daily basis. I have been spit at, stabbed with a pencil, hit, pinched, and called every name in the book. I am expected to tolerate it. They are children, and they are products of their environments. I understand that children are dealing with a lot at home. I understand the need for empathy and compassion. I understand that the child who shot his teacher still deserves that empathy and compassion because he was only 6. In his own way, he was also a victim. The biggest problem I have is: why was this allowed to happen? Something was happening with this child long before he got hold of that gun. How much are teachers expected to put up with? Everyone is quick to blame teachers, not knowing what it is they are expected to deal with day in and day out. A teacher can only do so much with what they're given. They need more support. Do you know how many times teachers and staff have called CPS on children only to have nothing happen? From my understanding from what I read from what the great grandfather said his granddaughter and his great-grandson had tried to recieve help multiple times only for nothing to happen. There were so many things that happened long before this child brought that gun to school. Kids like that boy do deserve help, but if they are that big of a safety issue, which clearly he was, he needed to be somewhere safer, somewhere they could work with him where he didn't put other people's lives at risk. The teacher was the only one shot, but think about the children in that classroom that day. They could have been physically injured, but now they also probably have some mental things they have to work through. We are putting the safety of others at risk because of one child. I'm not saying that child doesn't deserve help and empathy, but I am saying it shouldn't have been up to that teacher to take a bullet to prove it. That child should have had so many other things in place before this kind of thing could happen. I can think of so many instances when I was working where teachers have literally been attacked by a child and have sent that child to the office only to have that child return ten minutes later. I'm talking about how one teacher had a child's heavy backpack thrown at them, and they later that day ended up in the ER over it, and that child came back to class ten minutes later after a small lecture. Another teacher had a stool thrown at her, and once again the child came back to class. Why are we not taking these issues more seriously? Do these children deserve compassion and empathy? Yes, absolutely, but there has to be a safer environment for it, with people who have the resources and training to deal with it. We should not be putting them in general education, where the teachers don't have the training to deal with this kind of situation and where the children don't have the same kinds of problems as the children who act this way. We are exposing children to trauma and danger. There has to be a better way to deal with these children that gets them what they need without putting others at risk. We have such a flawed education system, and everyone is always so quick to blame the teachers and staff without looking at who runs it. Schools don't have the funding they need; teachers and staff are underpaid while being expected to deal with situations that put their lives in danger or cause a ton of stress. Everyone wants to complain about the education system, but no one wants to fund it. Our tax dollars are what pay for the public education system, and few people want to pay for it. If you think they are being unwise with tax dollars and that's your main issue, then go to meetings, vote the way you need to vote, and get involved, but don't take away funding where it's needed. Find the resources to make sure it does go where it's needed. That little boy deserved to have a better life, and that teacher deserved to be safe at work, and neither one got what they deserved. There needs to be more done to prevent these things from happening. It starts at home with our own kids and teaching them right from wrong; it starts with us teaching children accountability and watching what we are exposing them to. From there, it is up to the other adults to step up when they see something is wrong. It requires CPS to do their jobs; it starts with the higher-ups in the school district doing a better job. Principals need to do their jobs by making sure kids are getting the care they need, by not allowing children who are acting out and are being dangerous to walk back into a classroom they just terrorized. Parents need to take accountability for what their children are being exposed to at home, and if their children aren't safe at home, they definitely aren't safe in school with other children. We need to do better to help the kids who need help while not putting others in danger.