Who is Abigail Zwerner? Virginia teacher shot by her six-year-old student- Know what happened next

A 25-year-old school teacher was shot by her six-year-old student on January 6. The teacher from Virginia, Abigail Zwerner has now filed a $40m lawsuit against school officials, alleging them of gross negligence for ignoring warning signs. According to Zwerner, the six-year-old child had previously shown signs of ‘random violence’.

The lawsuit was filed on Monday which argues the defendants were aware of the child’s aggressive behaviour. Zwerner was shot on January 6 in the hand and upper chest and spent two weeks in the hospital. Since then, she has undergone surgery four times.

The boy brought the pistol in his backpack to Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, a city of about 180,000 residents northwest of Virginia Beach. After being shot by the unidentified boy, Zwerner got her other students to safety before calling for help for herself.

"She is a trooper, she is a hero," Police Chief Steve Drew said after the incident. According to investigators, the child took his mother’s firearm and brought that to school. The firearm was legally bought by her mother.

The board has since voted to install metal detectors at Rickneck, which has 550 pupils, and every other school in the district. The superintendent was fired by the school board and the assistant principal resigned, but the boy has not been charged, nor has anyone else.

The lawsuit also claims that the same boy ‘strangled and choked’ his kindergarten teacher last year. It also alleges that the boy would chase other students with a belt to whip them and swear at staff.

According to the complaint, two days before opening fire on Ms Zwerner as she sat at a reading table in class, the boy had taken the teacher's mobile phone and smashed it on the ground. For this, he received a one-day suspension.

His family says the boy has an ‘acute disability’ and rarely attended school without one of his parents being present.

Zwerner is seeking compensatory damages for permanent bodily injuries, physical pain, mental trauma, lost earnings and other damages, the lawsuit says.

“I thought I had died”, told Zwerner to NBC’s Today show in March.

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