Teacher who was shot by 6-year-old student at school testifies she
thought she had died
[October 31, 2025]
By JOHN RABY
A former Virginia teacher who was shot by a 6-year-old student in her
classroom in 2023 testified Thursday that she thought she had died that
day.
Abby Zwerner testified in her $40 million lawsuit filed against a former
assistant principal who is accused of ignoring multiple warnings that
the student had a gun.
Zwerner was shot in the hand and chest in January 2023 as she sat at a
reading table in her first-grade classroom at Richneck Elementary School
in Newport News. Zwerner spent nearly two weeks in the hospital,
required six surgeries and does not have the full use of her left hand.
A bullet narrowly missed her heart and remains in her chest.
“I thought I had died. I thought I was either on my way to heaven or in
heaven,” Zwerner testified. "But then it all got black. And so, I then
thought I wasn’t going there. And then my next memory is I see two
co-workers around me and I process that I’m hurt and they’re putting
pressure on where I’m hurt.”
The shooting sent shock waves through the military shipbuilding
community and the country, with many wondering how a child so young
could access a gun and shoot his teacher.
Zwerner no longer works for the school district and has said she has no
plans to teach again. It was revealed in court Wednesday that she has
become a licensed cosmetologist.
Zwerner answered questions on the stand for more than an hour.
A physician testified Wednesday that Zwerner can’t make a tight fist
with her left hand, which has less than half its normal grip strength.
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Former Richneck Elementary School teacher Abby Zwerner looks back
into the courtroom during her civil lawsuit trial, Tuesday, Oct. 28,
2025, in Newport News, Va. (Stephen M. Katz/The Virginian-Pilot via
AP, Pool)
Former assistant principal Ebony Parker is accused of failing to act
after several people voiced concerns to her in the hours before the
shooting that the student had a gun in his backpack.
Zwerner testified she first heard about the gun prior to class
recess from a reading specialist. The shooting happened a few hours
later.
Despite her injuries, Zwerner was able to hustle her students out of
the classroom. She eventually passed out in the school office.
“The moment went by very fast,” she said.
Parker is the only defendant in the lawsuit. A judge previously
dismissed the district’s superintendent and the school principal as
defendants.
Parker faces a separate criminal trial next month on eight counts of
felony child neglect. Each of the counts is punishable by up to five
years in prison upon a conviction.
The student's mother was sentenced to nearly four years in prison
for felony child neglect and federal weapons charges. Her son told
authorities he got his mother’s handgun by climbing onto a drawer to
reach the top of a dresser, where the firearm was in his mom’s
purse.
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