The Virginia teacher who was shot by a 6-year-old student was publicly honored Wednesday by Virginia lawmakers who repeatedly called Abby Zwerner a hero and praised her for keeping her students safe.
“You’re a hero and we must recognize you,” said Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears. “Thank you for all that you do for our children and for the lives you no doubt saved.”
The Virginia Senate passed a resolution recognizing Zwerner for her bravery and for everything she did that day.
Zwerner, a first-grade teacher at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, was shot in the hand and chest on Jan. 6, as she sat at a reading table in her classroom. The 25-year-old spent nearly two weeks in the hospital and required four surgeries.
“Despite life-threatening injuries, Abby Zwerner ushered her students to safety in another room and was the last person to exit the classroom,” Senate Clerk Susan Clarke Schaar announced to the chamber.
Senate Minority Leader Tommy Norment said that Zwerner “has been praised all across this country.”
“She’s been very empathetic about her students who were subjected to this,” Norment said. “She truly is one of Virginia’s great heroes and I have enormous admiration for her.”
Earlier this week, a grand jury indicted the 6-year-old boy’s mother, charging her with felony child neglect and a misdemeanor charge of endangering a child by reckless storage of a firearm.
Police said the boy’s mother legally purchased the gun. Her attorney, James Ellenson, has said the gun was secured on a top shelf in her closet and had a trigger lock.
Days after the shooting, school officials revealed that administrators at Richneck Elementary had suspected the child may have had a weapon before the shooting occurred. But they didn’t find it, despite searching his backpack.
In a lawsuit filed last week seeking $40 million in damages, Zwerner’s attorneys accused school officials of gross negligence and of ignoring multiple warnings from teachers and other school employees the day of the shooting that the boy was armed and in a “violent mood.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
