A 14-year-old boy is accused of killing a teacher in Danvers, Ma.
A teacher was found dead in the woods behind the high school where she taught in Danvers, Mass. Wednesday. Already this week a teacher died at a middle school in Nevada when a 12-year-old boy went on a shooting spree.
Police are accusing a 14-year-old boy of mudering the Massachusetts teacher, 24-year-old Colleen Ritzer, authorities said. She taught at Danvers High School, close to where her body was found. Authorities discovered blood in the bathroom of the school.
The accused student, who has not been identified, is expected to be arraigned on murder charges later on Wednesday. The school in Danvers, about 30 minutes from Boston, remain closed.
At a press conference, Jonathan Blodgett, the district attorney in Essex County, called Ritzer’s death a “terrible tragedy” and that she was a “very respected, loved teacher.”
The death comes just two days after Michael Landsberry, a 45-year-old mathematics teacher, was shot and killed by a 12-year-old student in Sparks Middle School in Nevada. Two students were injured in the rampage, in which Landsberry try to shield other students from the line of gunfire.
According to Attorney General Eric Holder, the U.S. has witnessed 12 active-shooter situations so far in 2013, a number that has tripled since the beginning of the century. The two incidents from this week are particularly shocking given the young age of the alleged shooters.