A former Virginia elementary school teacher who was shot by a 6-year-old student in her classroom has given an emotional testimony, recalling the moment she believed she was about to die.
Abby Zwerner, who filed a $40 million lawsuit against a former assistant principal, described the terrifying ordeal that left her with life-altering injuries. The incident occurred in January 2023 inside her first-grade classroom at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News. The young student shot her in the hand and chest as she sat at a reading table, an attack that shocked both the local community and the entire nation.
Zwerner recounted that in the moments after the gunfire, she thought her life had ended. “I thought I had died. I thought I was either on my way to heaven or in heaven,” she said, explaining how her consciousness faded before she realized two co-workers were trying to stop the bleeding. The bullet narrowly missed her heart and remains lodged in her chest to this day.
Following the shooting, Zwerner spent nearly two weeks in the hospital and underwent six surgeries. She continues to suffer from partial disability in her left hand, with less than half its normal strength. Her physician testified that she is unable to make a tight fist or perform certain tasks, impacting her ability to return to teaching.
The former assistant principal, Ebony Parker, is accused of ignoring repeated warnings from staff that the child had brought a gun to school. Witnesses said several people raised concerns to Parker hours before the shooting, but no action was taken. Parker is now facing eight counts of felony child neglect, each carrying a potential prison sentence of up to five years if convicted.
Meanwhile, the student’s mother was sentenced to nearly four years in prison for felony child neglect and federal firearm offenses after it emerged that her son accessed the weapon from her purse at home.
Zwerner, who no longer works for the school district, has since retrained as a licensed cosmetologist and says she does not plan to return to teaching. Her testimony stands as a grim reminder of the growing concerns over gun access and school safety in the United States.
