The Virginia teacher who was shot by her 6-year-old student texted a loved one before she was wounded that the boy was armed and that school officials were failing to act, according to a source close to the situation.
The source on Tuesday said Abigail Zwerner sent the text about an hour before she was shot on Jan. 6, saying that the student said he had a gun in his backpack and administrators at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News weren’t helping.
The text “showed her frustration,” said the source, who only disclosed details of the single text message to NBC News and not the messages that came before or after it. “She was frustrated because she was trying to get help with this child, for this child, and then when she needed help, no one was coming.”
When asked about Zwerner’s text message and previous safety concerns from teachers and staff, Newport News Public Schools spokesperson Michelle Price said, “Anything that has been reported to our school leadership team in regards to concerns at Richneck from teachers and staff members is part of the investigation. It’s being thoroughly investigated.”
On Wednesday morning, Zwerner’s attorney Diane Toscano held a news conference and said three teachers went to the school administration about the boy’s behavior on Jan. 6 and that he was believed to have had a gun on campus.
Zwerner first went to a school administrator between 11:15 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. and said the student threatened to beat up a classmate, Toscano said. A second teacher went to a school administrator at 12:30 p.m. and told the administrator the teacher took it upon herself to search the 6-year-old boy’s backpack.
“The administrator downplayed the report from the teacher and the possibility of a gun,” Toscano said.
A third teacher told an administrator shortly before 1 p.m., the boy showed a student the gun at recess and “threatened to shoot him if he told anybody,” Toscano said.
A fourth employee asked an administrator for permission to search the boy and was denied, Toscano said.
The administrator told the employee, to “wait the situation out because the school day was almost over,” Toscano said.
Toscano said the “administration could not be bothered” and the tragedy was “entirely preventable” if the administration “had taken action when they had knowledge of imminent danger. But instead, they failed to act and Abby was shot.”
Toscano said she plans to bring forth a lawsuit on Zwerner’s behalf.
Prior to the news conference, the law firm representing the Zwerner family said it could not confirm the text and did not respond to requests for comment from the family.
The news of the direct warning from Zwerner comes after the school system’s superintendent, George Parker III, said at a virtual town hall this month that the boy had come to school late and that his book bag was inspected upon his arrival at the office to sign in, according to parents who watched the meeting.
“At least one administrator was notified of a possible weapon,” Parker said in a video reviewed by NBC News.
A Newport News police spokeswoman said authorities also determined through their investigation that “a school employee was notified of a possible firearm at Richneck Elementary before the shooting occurred,” adding, “The Newport News Police Department was not notified of this information prior to the incident.”
Further details weren’t made available about who conducted the search, why the gun wasn’t found and whether the child’s clothing was physically examined.
Zwerner, 25, was hailed as a hero by police who said after she was intentionally shot and seriously wounded in her hand and chest, she still managed to safely escort about 20 students out of her first-grade class at Richneck. She was released from the hospital last week.
“I believe she did save lives, because I don’t know what else might have happened if those kids would have stayed in that room,” Newport News Police Chief Steve Drew said during a news conference earlier this month.
No charges connected to the case have been publicly announced.