by Kerry Dougherty
Just when we thought we knew all of the horrific details of the shooting of Abby Zwerner we get more revelations.
Chilling ones.
You remember Miss Zwerner. She’s the 25-year-old Newport News first-grade teacher who was almost killed by one of her students in January.
She’s suing school officials for $40 million and they refuse to settle the case with her. Instead, these heartless “educators” pretend that getting shot is just an occupational hazard of teaching – sort of like paper cuts – and she was injured in the course of her daily responsibilities.
If they can persuade a court of this lunacy they will be off the hook for monetary damages.
And the woman who’s endured surgeries and God-knows-what-trauma will collect a few dollars from Virginia’s workman’s compensation fund.
If you’re the praying type – and I am – be sure to bombard the Almighty with petitions for Ms. Zwerner. The courts need to use common sense and give her the green light to sue the ever-loving crap out of a school district that ignored multiple warning signs and tolerated a psychotic child in class with normal kids and a devoted teacher.
Make no mistake. The school board, former superintendent and Richneck administrators set the table for this bloody mess:
Amy Kovac was approaching Abigail Zwerner’s first-grade classroom at Virginia’s Richneck Elementary School the moment a 6-year-old student pulled out a gun.
The reading specialist said in an interview with The Post that she heard the blast from the hallway and thought: “Oh my God.” Suddenly, the door to Zwerner’s classroom burst open and panicked students ran out.
Zwerner, who had been shot through the hand and in her shoulder and was bleeding badly, followed.
Kovac, 54, said instinct kicked in. She went into the classroom. She said the boy looked proud.
“I did it,” Kovac said the boy told her. “I shot the b—- dead.”
Let’s not play word games, as The Post and other outlets did. This is what the shooter actually said:
“’I shot that bitch dead.”
Then he added, “I did it” and “I got my mom’s gun last night.”
Cold.
What six year old talks like this? Where did he learn this garbage? What manner of graphic violence was he exposed to prior to the shooting?
Was he raised by wolves?
Remember, this is a SIX YEAR OLD. A child who should be learning to read and make his letters, who still believes in Santa and the tooth fairy.
Instead, this one sounds like a seasoned gang-banger.
Since the “suspect” in this case is a juvenile and hasn’t been charged with a crime, we don’t know his name or many details about his behavior.
We do know that his mother, Deja Taylor, is headed to prison. She pleaded guilty in federal court for using marijuana while in possession of a firearm. In addition, she’ll be in state court on August 15 on charges of felony child neglect and misdemeanor reckless leaving of a firearm so as to endanger a child.
We also know that this kid allegedly attempted to strangle his kindergarten teacher. He was such a problem in first grade that until just before the shooting he wasn’t allowed in class without a parent.
Deliberately clueless school officials shrugged off warnings about this kid’s violent behavior and let this shooting happen.
Being gravely injured by a firearm is not an occupational hazard of teaching first grade.
Courts should let the Zwerner lawsuit proceed.
Published with permission from Kerry: Unemployed and Unedited.
