Mother of 6-Year-old Who Shot Teacher Break Silence: 'He Felt Like He Was Being Ignored'
May 10 2023, Published 5:00 p.m. ET
The mother of the 6-year-old student who shot his first-grade teacher Abigail Zwerner spoke out on the disturbing incident and claimed her son "felt like he was being ignored," RadarOnline.com has learned.
Despite being shot in the abdomen and through the hand, Zwerner, 25, was able to safely guide the other children in her classroom to safety at Richneck Elementary School in Virginia on January 6.
At the time of the shooting, the student was on a special care plan that required his mother or father to be in class with him, however, the week of the shooting was the first time that the student's parents were not present.
Zwerner sued the school district for $40 million following the classroom shooting.
When Good Morning America host Linsey Davis asked Deja Taylor if her son talked of the day that he shot his teacher in class, the mother replied that her son mostly spoke about the days leading up to the traumatic event.
Taylor told Davis that her son "really liked" Zwerner, but often told his mother that he felt like his teacher "wasn't listening" to him.
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"He actually really liked her," Taylor said of her son. "I will say that week, he did come home and he was talking a lot about how he felt like he was being ignored."
"He would come home, and say 'Mom, I don't think she was listening to me.' I didn't like that," the mother continued, as she recalled her son being suspended the week before the shooting for "knocking" his teacher's phone out of her hand on "accident."
"He threw his arms up and said fine. When he put his arms up he knocked the phone out of her hand on accident. He got suspended for that," Taylor said.
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Abigail Zwerner
The mother described her son as "energetic" and said that despite his ADHD, he was working on a plan to improve his disruptive behavior.
"He has ADHD. Some people have it mildly. He's off the wall," Taylor continued. "Doesn't sit still ever. He had started medication and he was meeting his goals academically."
James Ellenson, the lawyer for the student's family, noted that the school district was aware of the student's behavioral history, which Zwerner described as "violent" in her lawsuit.
"If they believed all of these behaviors to be true, then they should not have allowed him to advance to a higher level," Ellenson said of the school district. "They should've put him back into kindergarten, possibly even pre-K, but at the minimum to kindergarten."
According to Zwerner's lawsuit, the student had a "history of random violence" and was known to have "attacked students and teachers alike."
As for how the first grader came in possession of the firearm, Ellenson said "no adult knows exactly how he got the gun."
While Taylor accepted responsibility for the incident, she claimed that the gun was kept locked away and confirmed that it was purchased legally.