When a School Shooting is Part of a Teacher's Job Description
Meet Abigail Zwerner and see how bad our gun culture really is.
Take America’s bizarre gun culture, a right-wing state that fully embraces that culture, and a not rare enough school shooting, and you get the following:
Abigail Zwerner, 25, was reading in her first-grade class at a Virginia elementary school when a student who had a lengthy history disciplinary action pulled out a gun and shot her.
A first-grade teacher was shot by one of her students.
A six-year-old student.
Ms. Zwerner was shot in the chest and hand by the same bullet.
She had to be hospitalized for two weeks, and she’s suffering from PTSD.
The student was known to be violent. He had even tried to strangle a kindergarten teacher, but because of his age is not being charged with a crime.
The gun belonged to his mother, who was later arrested for felony child neglect and recklessly leaving a firearm so as to endanger a child.
The day of the shooting, there were rumors that the boy had a gun, and his backpack was searched, but according to Ms. Zwerner, she saw the boy take something out of the backpack and put it into a pocket.
She sued the Newport News school district last month for negligence, charging that the boy’s history of violence and rumors that he was armed were ignored.
This is where the story really gets bizarre.
Two weeks ago, the school board filed its response.
The board claims that Ms. Zwerner’s shooting falls under workers compensation.
That’s right, being a teacher in America means that being drilled by a first grader is par for the course.
The board maintains that since teachers’ workers comp covers assault, her gunshot wounds fall under this statute.
The board says:
"Plaintiff was clearly injured while at work, at her place of employment, by a student in the classroom where she was a teacher, and during the school day."
The school district says that school shootings across the country have made this violence an expected part of a teacher’s life.
The district’s filing states:
"While in an ideal world, young children would not pose any danger to others, including their teachers, this is sadly not reality.”
"This is exactly why Plaintiff strategically focuses on the use of a handgun as opposed to some other weapon with less perceived notoriety and shock value, even though serious injuries can be inflicted with scissors, knives, pencils, rocks, chairs, and hands."
In an ideal world, even the most conservative state would acknowledge that school shootings are not normal and should never, ever be perceived as normal.
In an ideal world, a teacher wouldn’t have to “strategically focus” on the fact that a six-year-old tried to pump her full of lead.
Even in 2023 and the endless list of school shootings, prospective educators should not consider being shot as an occupational hazard.
But this is America.
A teacher is shot by a kid who isn’t old enough to ride roller coasters, and her school boards tells her that she should have expected this to happen.
Many teachers in America have to buy their own school supplies.
Apparently, a flak jacket should be at the top of the list.