Abigail Zwerner

 Virginia first grade teacher Abigail Zwerner was shot in her classroom on Friday, January 6th by her six year old [special needs] student (1)(see Endnotes for a report filed on 1-26-23 by Reuter's reporter Clifford Tyler).

As this story continues to play out in the news I cannot help but see the parallels in very similar events that initiated the circumstances that led to me eventually being arrested and then prosecuted(2). In October 2009, while I was an administrator at Skelly Elementary in Tulsa, Oklahoma we had our own six year old classroom terrorist, Jaylynn Hilley. Jaylynn was disrupting the learning environment in his first grade classroom almost daily. His white female teacher, Brooke Rowland was at her wits end just 7 weeks in to the new school year. Jaylynn would scream and yell in class. He would knock over furniture and up end supply tubs. He eventually began stabbing the others students with sharpened pencils or slicing at them with opened scissors. In prison we call those implements shanks. For the first few weeks of the school year Brooke Rowland attempted to deal with Jaylynn's behavior on her own. Eventually, she sought assistance from the school counselor, an older black female named Myrtha Mikel (http://ManassehEphraim.blogspot.com/myrtha-mikel-day-3338.HTML ). Myrtha's intervention strategies, whatever they were, resulted in Jaylynn being continued to return to the classroom to resume his reign of terror, blaming Brooke Rowland for not meeting his IEP needs and implied a bias against him because he was black. Jaylynn, a six year old black male, was a selective mute with a troubled past. At the time of his first grade tenure his mother, Jameka Kimble had a bench warrant out for her arrest, and his father, Tony Kimble was a convicted sex offender. Apparently, Myrtha had a familial relationship with one of Jaylynn's grandmothers. Myrtha refused to extract Jaylynn from the classroom, to place him in a more restrictive, albeit safer special needs classroom, or to recommend suspension. She continued to return him to the classroom over and over again to physically and emotionally terrorize the other students and his teacher. Eventually, when I was made aware of this situation and called in to provide the necessary contractual and union negotiated support due the educator, Jaylynn's behaviors had escalated to very dangerous levels. He was committing acts of physical violence against the teacher and other students. When I heard of the recent shooting of Abigail Zwerner by a six year old my thoughts immediately went to Brooke Rowland and Jaylynn and the day I had to extract him from the classroom. It was early to mid October 2009 (prior to Martha's weaponized email as this is the primary event that precipitated it). Brooke Rowland had called the Office declaring an emergency. I ran to her classroom. Jaylynn was holed up under a table, growling like a wolverine, with sharpened pencils and scissors in hand. This would be our first face-to-face interaction due to disciplinary action being required. He almost immediately responded to my commands to release his weapons, come out from under the table, and we calmly walked to the Office. As we talked and he whispered his answers to me I learned about the painful "strap/lash" mark across his right side and back from the "spanking/belting" he received the day before. He had a deep purple bruise in the perfect shape of a belts tail end. You could see the awl holes where the buckle latch would secure in the strap. I learned that he did not like Brooke or Myrtha or principal Katherine Ackley. I surmised that he did not respond well to female authority figures, yet instantaneously responded to me. I then became Brooke Rowlands primary point of contact when intervention was necessary.

According to Martha's own testimony she stood at my opened office door as I counseled him and allowed him to cool down. Upon seeing the lash marks Jaylynn complained were hurting, I showed them Myrtha. I then turned Jaylynn over to Myrtha, at her request, so that she could make a DHS report. In the Abigail Zwerner circumstances it is reported that she could not get her administration to assist her........ .......I'm curious to know if that school includes its counselors as part of its administrative team. Myrtha had assumed a non-assigned administrative role at Skelly prior to my arrival in the fall of 2009. With my arrival, in her view, she was downgraded or demoted. In actuality, she was freed from her self-assumed admin responsibilities and released to do her contractual duties as a school counselor. She did not like this perceived usurping of her power base and acted accordingly. She was already on notice to stick to her assigned role. Yet, she persistently ran interference for Jaylynn keeping Brooke's concerns hidden from the administrative team until we were finally made aware of the situation by Brooke Rowland's mentor teacher. At that point Brooke began documenting Jaylynn's behavior on the school district's internal discipline tracking tool (named Power something-or-other). Once that documentation began, Myrtha was out of the loop and she could no longer intervene for Jaylynn's grandmother....... In the Abigail Zwerner circumstances it is reported that she could not get her administration to assist her........and was told to wait the situation out because the school day was almost over. Similarly, Brooke Rowland was encouraged by Myrtha Mikel to wait it out. However, once the situation hit my radar I took immediate action. I am all for "full inclusion" in the classroom and educating in the "least restrictive environment", however no one student should be allowed to hijack a classroom and certainly not terrorize the other child by screaming, threatening violence, and stabbing at them with shanks. When the documented circumstances of abuse and terrorism warranted me removing Jaylynn from the classroom and subsequently suspending him, Myrtha was not happy. She eventually drafted the "Karenesque" email in which she uses weaponized false allegations of abuse to attempt to remove me from the administrative team and my expulsion from "her" school. Eventually, at my August 2012 criminal trial, Myrtha admitted to lying and the jury acquitted me of that charge of abuse. Prior to my criminal trial, in July 2012, at my civil trial the Jaylynn Hilley family lost their case against me and TPS during the depositions phase due to the revelations of false allegations by Myrtha Mikel and Jaylynn's own testimony that he never said any form of abuse happened. Under advice of my TPS appointed counsel I had dropped my countersuit prior to the depositions with the intention of refiling them after a successful criminal outcome. In some lawyering that still stupifies me, since the depositions proved that I would most certainly win a civil case, TPS made a $25K settlement with the Jaylynn Hilley family if they would drop their lawsuit against me and TPS because, although TPS would win, the expenses involved in winning would well exceed that settlement amount. That money was put aside in a trust for Jaylynn to claim when he turns 18, which should be this year. I hope that Abigail Zwerner is able to sue for the compensation due her, but more importantly I hope that changes are made that empower classroom teachers and administrators to remove emotionally and mentally troubled students from the "general population" whom pose real threats to their contemporaries and their teachers. I hope that investments are made into actual special education real space (physical classrooms), virtual learning spaces and technology, special education instructors, counselors, and paraprofessionals who can support each special needs student's IEP.

_=-_=-_=-_=-_=-_=-_=-_=-_=-_=-_=-_=- Endnotes 1. UPDATE 1-Virginia school warned before child shot teacher, lawyer says superintendent fired. By Tyler Clifford Jan 25 (Reuters) - Authorities at a Virginia school were warned three times that a first grader had a gun before he shot and wounded his teacher, her lawyer said on Wednesday, while the school board voted to oust the superintendent. Abigail Zwerner, 25, was "shot purposely" in front of other students at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News earlier this month after administrators ignored warnings the 6-year-old student posed a threat, lawyer Diane Toscano said at a press conference. The warnings were made over three hours on the day of the shooting, according to Toscano, who said she planned to file a lawsuit against the Newport News School District on behalf of Zwerner. "This tragedy was entirely preventable if the school administrator responsible for school safety had done their part and taken action when they had knowledge of imminent danger," said Toscano. She did not say what damages she would seek on behalf of the teacher, who was wounded in the chest. At a special meeting Wednesday evening, the school board voted 5-to-1 to relieve Superintendent George Parker of his duties with severance. Parker came under pressure after saying that at least one administrator was aware the boy may have had a gun on the day of the shooting. After the vote, Chairwoman Lisa Surles-Law said the decision to terminate was made without cause as defined in Parker's contract. "Dr. Parker is a capable division leader who has served Newport News for nearly five years through some extremely challenging circumstances," she said. "This decision is based on the future trajectory and needs of our school division." Zwerner was the first to tell a school administrator on the morning of Jan. 6 that the student threatened to beat up another child, but the boy was not removed from class, according to Toscano. The administrator was not named. In the afternoon, a second teacher who suspected the boy had a weapon did not find a gun when she searched his book bag. She then told the same administrator that she believed the boy had put the gun in his pocket before going to recess, the lawyer said. Toscano said another student told a third teacher that the boy showed him a gun during recess and threatened to shoot him if he told anyone. The teacher reported the account to school administrators, she said. A fourth employee who learned of the threat asked for permission to search the boy, but was denied by the same school safety administrator, the lawyer said. "He was told to wait the situation out because the school day was almost over. Tragically, almost an hour later, violence struck Richneck Elementary School," Toscano said. Police plan to present findings from an investigation to the commonwealth's attorney in Newport News, who would make any decision regarding possible charges against the boy's mother. 2. This are my recollections 13.25 years later.