NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — A resilient Abby Zwerner is opening up about the trauma and struggles she has endured in the year since her then-6-year-old student intentionally shot her inside her Richneck Elementary School classroom.
“This past year has definitely changed me,” said Zwerner during a conversation with me at her attorneys’ office this week ahead of the one-year anniversary of the shooting. “I was diagnosed with PTSD. [My] anxiety has raised. [My] depression has raised, and that really takes a toll on me emotionally.”
Zwerner, 26, was sitting at the reading table in her classroom on January 6, 2023, when one of her first-grade students walked up to her, aimed a gun at her and pulled the trigger. The bullet barreled through Zwerner’s hand, pierced her chest, and caused her lung to collapse.
Zwerner spent weeks in the hospital and underwent several surgeries. She told me she thought she was going to die.
I asked her, “Are there bullet fragments still in your chest?”
She replied, “[There are] some in my hand and in my upper left chest.”
I continued, “Did you think you were going to die that day, Abby?”
She simply nodded yes, while trying to maintain composure, adding that the last year has been extremely challenging.
Richneck Shooting
TIMELINE: Everything we've learned about the Richneck shooting
“Very hard. Troubling. Traumatic,” she said, explaining she has gory nightmares. “[It’s been] mostly downs and not ups.”
I asked Zwerner, “When you became a teacher, did it ever cross your mind that a student would do this to you?”
“It’s surreal," she said, shaking her head. "It’s not normal.”
Zwerner has been praised for her heroic actions moments after the shooting when she managed to get the rest of her students to safety before collapsing from her injuries.
During our interview, she was clearly still haunted by those moments and struggled to find the words to recount her experience that day.
The $40 million lawsuit
“It’s hard talking about that day still, and it’s been a year,” said Diane Toscano, Zwerner’s attorney. “This not something that just goes away.”
The Toscano Law Group is representing Zwerner in a $40 million lawsuit against Newport News Public Schools over claims of negligence by school administrators.
According to Zwerner’s lawsuit, the school’s former assistant principal ignored several warnings that the shooter — who the lawsuit says had violently attacked students at the school and tried to choke a teacher — had a weapon the day of the shooting.
“It’s just kind of a slap in the face,” said Zwerner, echoing claims the lawsuit that teachers’ concerns at the school were routinely ignored.
Zwerner, who resigned from her teaching position weeks after the shooting, is refusing the Workers’ Compensation from Newport News Public Schools, arguing her injuries were not a part of her anticipated hazards as a teacher.
In court filings, attorneys for the school board disagreed, writing “in an ideal world, young children would not pose any danger to others, including their teachers, this is sadly not reality.”
“I was hurt [by that comment],” said Zwerner. “It made no sense. It makes no sense.”
A newport News judge ruled last year Zwerner’s lawsuit can move forward. A trial date is scheduled for January 2025.
Deja Taylor
Deja Taylor, the mother of the boy who shot Zwerner, is currently serving time in prison for her role in the shooting.
She is serving 21 months on federal charges for lying about her marijuana use when purchasing the gun her son used in the shooting.
She will also serve another two years in prison for felony child neglect.
I asked Zwerner, “Do you feel that’s justice? What [were] your thoughts when she was sentenced to prison?”
Zwerner told me, “I trust the court system, that’s what I’ll say. I trust the court system.”
Richneck Shooting
Mother of boy who shot Richneck teacher sentenced for felony child neglect
The aftermath
I asked Zwerner how she is supporting herself financially since her resignation from the school system, and her pending lawsuit against school system. She told me she started working part time in a field unrelated to education, and has no plans to resume her career as a teacher.
“For now, no, I don’t want to go back,” she said.
I asked Zwerner what she wants to say to her former students who witnessed the shooting. She said, “I hope they know at the least that I miss them, never stopped missing them.”
As for why she’s sharing her story with WTKR News 3 now, Zwerner said “I feel like it's a good moment, a good time to come out and share my voice a little bit more.”
I asked, “Is this a part of you gaining your strength back?”
She said, “I would say so.”
I ended our conversation by asking what she wanted to say to people across Hampton Roads who have rallied behind her.
“It's meant a lot,” she said. “It means a lot to know that I have people by my side, to know that I have people who believe in me.”
She continued, “There’s still kindness in the world.”
You can read more about Zwerner's recovery from our news-gathering partners at The Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press.
Photojournalist Lydia Johnson and Investigative Producer Brianna Lanham contributed to this story.
WATCH: Full News 3 Interview with Abby Zwerner
