Deja Nicole Taylor, Virginia mom whose 6 year old son shot teacher banned from contact until he’s 18 is sentenced to a further two years in jail for child neglect over problem son who shot first Newport News first grade teacher, Abigail Zwerner.
A just punishment? The Virginia mother of a six-year-old boy who shot his teacher with her gun has been banned from contacting her child until he turns 18, a judge ruled on Friday.
Deja Nicole Taylor, 25, was charged with felony child neglect after her son shot his first-grade teacher Abigail Zwerner, 26, at her Newport News classroom in January.
The mom with a history of heavy drug use, has now been sentenced to a further two years in prison (for child neglect) – which is a harsher sentence than the six months prosecutors recommended as part of a plea deal, USA Today reported.
The Newport News Circuit judge sentenced Taylor to five years in total, with three years suspended.
Taylor previously pled guilty to using marijuana while owning a gun and was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison in November on felony gun charges.
As part of that plea deal, local prosecutors agreed to drop a misdemeanor count of recklessly storing a firearm.
Authorities said she lied about her drug use on a federal background check form when she bought the gun that her son brought to school.
Taylor’s son is now in the custody and care of his great-grandfather and attending a new school in the region.
The critically wounded teacher spent two weeks in hospital after the January incident, which saw a bullet hit her hand and chest.
Moments after the shooting, the six-year-old told a reading specialist who restrained him: ‘I shot that (expletive) dead’ and ‘I got my mom’s gun last night,’ according to search warrants.
Taylor told police she believed her 9mm handgun was secured at home with a trigger lock. But authorities said they never found a lock during searches of the home.
Taylor’s son told authorities he climbed onto a drawer to reach the top of a dresser, where the weapon was in her purse.
He concealed the gun in his backpack and then his pocket before shooting his teacher in front of the class, prosecutors said.
The day of the shooting, the six-year-old was dropped off at the school by his mother.
He told other children that morning he had a firearm in his backpack and staff were also told about it.
Rather than remove the boy from any classes, school’s administrators inexplicably allowed the child to be around other children and teachers.
They checked his backpack for a weapon, but he had already removed it and put it in his sweatshirt, according to a lawsuit later filed by Zwerner.
The vice principal then forbade any teachers from searching the boy himself, according to the lawsuit.
At 1:59pm, he pulled out the gun from his sweater and shot Zwerner in the chest. The bullet hit one of her hands first – which she says saved her life.
Zwerner no longer works for the school system and is no longer teaching.
In April, she filed a lawsuit against the school board and some teachers for not doing more to protect her and others from the child. The 20-page lawsuit described the boy’s ‘disturbing’ past behavior.
‘John Doe had been removed from school during the 2021-2022 school year when he was in kindergarten after he strangled and choked a teacher,’ the lawsuit noted.
‘Also during the 2021-2022 school year, a female child had fallen on the playground and John Doe came up to her, pulled her dress up and began to touch the child inappropriately until reprimanded by a teacher,’ it reads.
Two days before the same boy had smashed her phone and called her a ‘b***h.’
A year before the shooting, the boy was so troublesome that he’d been removed from the school after he tried to choke a different teacher, and was supposed to be chaperoned by a parent every day.
Since her arrest, Taylor has twice tested positive for cocaine and marijuana federal prosecutors wrote in a filing with the court this month.
She also missed two drug tests and two drug treatment sessions, they said.
‘These violations are serious and call into question the defendant´s danger to the community, respect for the law and this Court´s Orders,’ Assistant U.S. Attorneys Lisa McKeel and Peter Osyf wrote.
Zwerner is suing Newport News Public Schools for $40 million, alleging gross negligence against school administrators.
The school board is trying to block the lawsuit, arguing that Zwerner’s injuries fall under workers’ compensation, and as such are limited to 10 years’ pay and limited medical benefits.
Zwerner says administrators ignored multiple warnings the boy had a gun that day and had routinely dismissed ongoing concerns about his troubling behavior.
