Virginia teacher Abby Zwirner revealed for the first time the scars she had on her hand after being shot by a 6-year-old student last year. It was a horrifying moment when she last saw her first-grade class.
The 26-year-old educator quit her job at Rich Neck Elementary School shortly after the boy fired a handgun from his mother's purse and attacked Zwerner in her classroom on Jan. 2, 2023.
“It's still very difficult to think about my last memories with them,” Zwerner said. told Pilot Online Wednesday — one year after the shooting and just weeks after the boy's mother was sentenced to two years in prison for child neglect.
“I just wonder about them,” she said of her students. “I hope they are enjoying school and enjoying second grade. I hope they continue to be kind to their classmates and kind to their teachers. I hope they are still happy and that they I hope that you are not completely deprived of your happiness.”
Zwerner showed a scar on the back of his left hand where the bullet entered and exited before it hit his chest and punctured his lung.
She was sitting at the reading table in her classroom when a student whose mother claimed she “really liked” the teacher pointed a gun at her.
Since then, Zwerner has undergone five hand surgeries to regain fine motor skills. Zwerner said he has “made great progress” but still struggles with his day-to-day tasks.
Her hand “will never be 100 percent,” Zwerner said. She is “having a hard time grasping things…buttons are still hard to press sometimes.”
She has dealt with a number of health issues since the harrowing ordeal, including a bullet fragment that still remains in her chest, but said it's not just the physical scars that have left her.
“It's always with me…and it's always in the back of my head,” Zwerner said.
“I'm not the same every day. I don't have the same emotions every day. Or I don't have the same emotions or the same thoughts every day. I mean, I have a lot of good days and good moments, but I also have a lot of bad days and bad moments. There are also a lot of them. …It’s a mix.
Zwerner has previously spoken of her new battle with anxiety in public places and people hiding their hands in their pockets. She has also been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.
Anxiety became deeply ingrained in her daily life, making it impossible for Zwerner to return to the classroom and robbing the young educator of her passion in life.
Zwerner said he is “happy” to see his former students, but doesn't think he will ever teach again.
“It has a lot to do with the anxiety that comes with it,” she told the magazine.
“The PTSD that comes with that. The fear that comes with thinking about going into a classroom or a school or (being) a teacher in front of kids. … So, at least for now, I'm working on a new career path. Okay. That's private for now.”
Zwirner is in the midst of a $40 million lawsuit against the Newport News School Board, alleging administrators ignored multiple warnings that the boy was in possession of a gun.
The school board is trying to block the lawsuit by arguing that Zwirner is only eligible for workers' compensation compensation under Virginia law, a move Zwirner called “hurtful.”
A judge ruled in November that the case could proceed to trial, and the school board is pursuing an appeal.
Meanwhile, Dejah Taylor, the mother of the boy who shot and killed Zwerner, was sentenced in December to two years in prison for felony child abandonment.
Taylor had already been sentenced in November to 21 months in federal prison for using marijuana while possessing a firearm in connection with the shocking incident.
Her son, now 7 years old, attends another school and is in the care of his great-grandfather.
