A jury in Virginia, United States, on Thursday (November 6) ruled that a former teacher who was shot by a 6-year-old student at school will receive a $10 million compensation.
The jury supported her claim in the lawsuit: she had repeatedly warned a former school administrator that the child had a gun, but the administrator did nothing.
The unfavorable verdict was handed to Ebony Parker, who was the assistant principal at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia.
In January 2023, Abby Zwerner was shot while sitting at a reading desk in a first-grade classroom. She sought $40 million in damages from Parker in the lawsuit.
Zwerner spent nearly two weeks in the hospital, underwent six surgeries, and her left hand’s function has not fully recovered. A bullet narrowly missed her heart and remains in her chest.
After the judgment was announced, Zwerner did not give interviews outside the court. One of her lawyers, Diane Toscano, said the verdict sent a message that what happened at the school was “wrong, intolerable, and schools must prioritize safety. I think this is a very important message.”
Parker was the sole defendant in this lawsuit. Previously, a request to sue the school district superintendent and the school principal was rejected by the judge.
The shooting incident shocked the military shipbuilding community in this area and across the United States. Many people wondered how such a young child could have access to a gun and shoot their teacher.
The lawsuit claimed that Parker had a responsibility to protect Zwerner and others from harm upon learning about the gun in the student’s backpack. Zwerner’s lawyer stated that several hours before the shooting, multiple school staff informed Parker about the gun in the student’s backpack, but she took no action.
Toscano earlier told the jury, “Who would have thought a 6-year-old child would bring a gun to school and shoot a teacher? Dr. Parker had a duty to recognize that this could happen and investigate.”
Her lawyer Daniel Hogan reminded the jury to avoid “Monday-morning quarterbacking” when analyzing the shooting incident.
Hogan said, “Whether this could have been foreseen, you can judge for yourselves, that’s the crux of this case.”
The shooting occurred on the first day the student returned to school after being suspended for breaking Zwerner’s phone two days earlier.
Zwerner testified that she first heard about the gun in the student’s possession from a reading specialist before the midday break on the day of the incident. The specialist had received this information from other students, and a few hours later, the shooting occurred.
She testified that despite being seriously injured, she managed to escort the students out of the classroom and eventually passed out in the school office.
She believed she was dying at that moment.
She recalled, “I thought I was either on my way to heaven or already in heaven, but then, everything went black, and I felt like I couldn’t go to heaven. I remember seeing two colleagues beside me, realizing I was injured, and they were applying pressure to my wounds.”
Zwerner no longer works for the school district and has no plans to return to teaching. She later became a licensed cosmetologist.
Parker will face another criminal trial in November, where she is charged with eight counts of child neglect. If convicted, each count carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
Furthermore, the student’s mother was sentenced to nearly four years in prison for the same charges of child neglect and violating federal firearms regulations. The student told authorities that he climbed onto a vanity, reached the top, and retrieved the gun his mother kept in her handbag.
(Source: The Associated Press)