Abigail Zwerner: Virginia teacher shot by boy, 6, had warned about his ‘behavioral difficulties’ in emails before shooting
NEW PORT NEWS, VIRGINIA: Abigail Zwerner, the teacher who was shot by a six-year-old student in her class, had warned the school administrators through the mail before the shocking incident. The warning included an alleged incident of the Virginia boy sticking up his middle finger at a peer and shoving another. The first-grade teacher expressed her "uncomfortable" feeling with the boy returning to her class.
“She was frustrated because she was trying to get help with this child, for this child, and then when she needed help, no one was coming,” said a source in response to the situation, according to NBC. Her lawyer Diane Toscano previously alleged that Zwerner was harmed due to the failure of action from the Richneck Elementary School administrators.
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What did Abigail Zwerner write in the email?
Two months before the horrifying school shooting incident, Zwerner discussed the boy's alleged involvement in two troubling incidents. According to case documents obtained by 13 News Now, in her mail to the school administrators on November 2022, the elementary teacher stated that on October 11, 2022, the 6-year-old stuck up his middle finger to his classmate. She then went on to explain another incident where he pushed a classmate to the floor after he had bumped into the student "while running around the class" in November, the New York Post reported.
In the email to Principal Briana Foster Newton, the then-Principal, and Ebony Parker, the then-Assistant Principal, Zwerner wrote, "As of today, I do not feel comfortable with him returning to my classroom today." A meeting with the child's father was suggested by Parker to address the troubled student's “behavioral difficulties” and also to “put some things in place to support” him.
Warnings on the day of the shooting
In a news conference on Wednesday, February 1, the lawyer Diane Toscano said, “On that day, over the course of a few hours, three different times, three times, school administration was warned by concerned teachers and employees that the boy had a gun on him at the school and was threatening people” and added, “but the administration could not be bothered.”
According to the lawyer, on the day of the shooting, the administrators were alerted by a teacher at 12.30 pm that the 6-year-old's backpack was searched for the gun. However, she believed it was in the boy's pocket. Later, another employee warned the administrators about the student after another student informed them that he showed him the weapon and threatened to shoot him. However, the administrators instructed another teacher “to wait the situation out because the school day was almost over,” as she was denied her request to search the boy.
Richneck Elementary School shooting incident
The shocking shooting incident on January 6 occurred while the 25-year-old teacher was teaching her first-grade class. The boy shot her in the chest and before collapsing, Zwerner managed to send her students out of the classroom. She was then immediately taken to the hospital.
According to her lawyer, at 11.00 am, before the incident took place, Zwerner warned the administrators that the troubled boy threatened to beat up one of the students in the class. Later, the boy aimed at the elementary teacher and "intentionally" shot her with the 9mm Taurus handgun.
As per the New York Post report, the police officials have stated that nobody from the school or the administrators has warned them about the weapon before the incident. Cops noted that the gun was purchased by the boy's mother. However, the 6-year-old's access to the weapon remains unclear. The lawyer for the child and his family talked on their behalf to convey that their son is "acutely disabled." The boy's mother, whose identity was not been revealed, wasn't charged with a crime.