The Virginia teacher who was shot by her 6-year-old student had warned administrators about his behavior – including allegedly sticking his middle finger at a classmate and shoving one other – and said she felt “uncomfortable” with him returning to her classroom.
Teacher Abigail Zwerner reported two disturbing incidents involving the boy in emails to her superiors on Nov. 22, lower than two months before he allegedly shot her at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, in line with documents obtained by 13News Now.
Zwerner said the boy had stuck up his middle finger to a classmate on Oct. 11 — and a month later had bumped “right into a classmate while running around the category” after which pushed the coed to the bottom.
“As of today, I don’t feel comfortable with him returning to my classroom today…,” she wrote in the e-mail to then-Principal Briana Foster Newton and then-Assistant Principal Ebony Parker.
Parker suggested scheduling a gathering with the boy’s father to deal with “behavioral difficulties” and “put some things in place to support” the troubled student, in line with one other email on Nov. 22 obtained by the news outlet.
An hour before the shooting, Zwerner had reportedly texted a loved one that the boy was carrying a gun in his backpack.
After the incident, the boy’s family told the district that he “suffers from an acute disability and was under a care plan at the varsity that included his mother or father attending school with him and accompanying him to class day-after-day.”
They said that the week of the incident “was the primary week after we weren’t at school with him. We are going to regret our absence on this present day for the remaining of our lives.”
News concerning the email threads comes after the lawyer for Foster Newton said she had not been informed the coed had a gun on the day of the shooting.
“It continues to be reported that unidentified school administrators were aware the 6-year-old student had a gun at college on Jan. 6 and easily didn’t act,” attorney Pamela Branch told reporters last week.
“Mrs. Newton has been assumed to be one in every of those administrators; nevertheless, that is removed from the reality,” she said. “The very fact of the matter is those that were aware the coed had a gun on the premises that day didn’t report it to Ms. Newton.”
Newton and Parker each resigned after it was revealed administrators had allegedly been warned thrice that day concerning the boy being armed.
Zwerner’s attorney Diane Toscano has said school staffers warned administrators the boy was armed but that nothing was done.
She said that Zwerner plans to sue the varsity district over the “entirely preventable” shooting.
Despite being struck within the chest and hand, the heroic teacher still managed to steer her students out of the classroom before being rushed to a hospital.
The Virginia Senate has passed a resolution praising Zwerner for her bravery.
The resolution reads: “Despite life-threatening injuries, Abby Zwerner ushered her students to safety in one other room and was the last person to exit the classroom where the shooting took place; no students were injured,” and “then alerted the varsity administrator to call for assistance,” in line with the outlet.
The boy’s mother bought the 9mm gun legally and has not been charged with a criminal offense, authorities said.