Virginia teacher ‘can’t get out of bed’ some days after shooting by six-year-old
The Virginia school teacher who was shot in her classroom by a six-yearold student in January “can’t get out of bed” some days because her recovery has been so physically and mentally exhausting, she has said in her first interview since the attack.
“But … for going through what I’ve gone through, I try to stay positive,” 25-year-old Abigail Zwerner told NBC’s Today show in an interview aired on Tuesday. “You know, [I] try to have a positive outlook on what’s happened and where my future’s heading.”
Zwerner’s remarks came after a first-grade student shot her while she taught class at Richneck elementary school in Newport News, Virginia, on 6 January. Severely injured, she led about 20 students to safety before being hospitalized for nearly two weeks and undergoing four surgeries for bullet wounds to her left hand as well as upper chest.
“I just wanted to get my babies out of there,” Zwerner said, describing her students’ screams as she marched them to safety.
One of the physical scars healing for Zwerner is a wound on the side of her body where doctors inserted a chest tube after her lung collapsed in the wake of the shooting. She has been completing occupational therapy which she called “not only physically exhausting but mentally exhausting as well”. She has not been able to fully use her left hand since the shooting, and as a result it has been excruciating for her to make a fist, open a water bottle or get dressed.
“Some days are not so good days, where I can’t get up out of bed,” Zwerner said about her rehabilitation process. “Some days are better than others, where I’m able to get out of bed and make it to my appointments.”
Zwerner said she has not forgotten the look on the student shooter’s face as he “pointed the gun directly at” her or the only thought she had as she lost consciousness in an office after evacuating her other pupils from her classroom.
“I remember … I thought I had died,” she said.
Prosecutors in Newport News announced on 8 March that the student would not face criminal charges, saying they did not believe Virginia’s laws supported charging a child that young with such a serious offense. They have not said whether any adults could be held criminally liable in the case, including the child’s parents, who owned the pistol used to shoot Zwerner.
The family have said the child has an acute disability and was sent for mental health treatment. An attorney for the boy’s family said his parents were “committed to responsible gun ownership and keeping firearms out of the reach of children”, and they had tried to secure the pistol with a trigger lock and by placing it on the top shelf of a closet.
The parents have said they did not know the boy got the gun until after the shooting and were not sure how the boy managed to reach it. Nonetheless, they could be charged with a misdemeanor over the gun’s accessibility.
On-campus shootings by children that young are extremely rare. The founder of the K-12 School Shooting Database, David Riedman, told NBC News there had been just 17 such attacks by a child younger than 10 years old since 1970.
Still, Zwerner’s shooting reignited calls in some quarters for more meaningful gun control in the US.
Zwerner, whose clear-headed handling of the shooting’s immediate aftermath earned her public praise, has signaled her intent to sue the Newport News school district for damages.
The intent to sue notice filed by her attorney pointed out how school leaders gave the child a one-day suspension for breaking Zwerner’s cellphone, and teachers had alerted administrators about the boy’s behavior and their worry that the child had a gun. Officials searched the boy’s backpack but failed to find the gun he later used to shoot Zwerner.
Richneck’s assistant principal has since resigned, and the school district replaced its superintendent.
“I can tell you there were failures on multiple levels in this case,” Zwerner’s attorney, Diane Toscano, told the Today show. “And there were adults that were in positions of authority [who] could have prevented this tragedy from happening and did not.”