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A former elementary school teacher in Virginia has been awarded $10 million by a jury after she was shot in the chest in 2023 by a six-year-old student. Abby Zwerner, who once taught at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, sued Ebony Parker, the assistant principal, for gross negligence, accusing the school administrator of disregarding multiple warnings that the child possessed a firearm. The jury deliberated for nearly six hours before handing down the verdict against Parker in the civil case case, which could set a legal precedent for the question of who’s to blame when children have access to guns and carry out school shootings. Zwerner was injured in January 2023 when she was shot while sitting at a reading table in her first-grade classroom. The bullet narrowly missed her heart and to this day remains in her chest. The former teacher spent nearly two weeks in the hospital, required six surgeries and does not have the full use of her left hand. Her legal action had sought $40 million in compensatory damages from Parker, who was the only defendant in the lawsuit. A judge previously dismissed the district's superintendent and the school principal as defendants. The shooting sent shock waves through this military shipbuilding community and the country at large, with many wondering how a child so young could gain access to a gun and shoot his teacher. One of Zwerner’s attorneys, Diane Toscano, said in opening statements that Parker made “bad decisions and choices that day.” Parker had the authority but failed to search the student, remove him from the classroom and call law enforcement, Toscano added, telling the jury: “It's Dr. Parker's job to believe that that is possible. It's her job to investigate it and get to the very bottom of it.” The lawsuit said Parker had a duty to protect Zwerner and others from harm after being told about the gun. Zwerner's attorneys said Parker failed to act in the hours before the shooting after several school staff members told her that the student had a gun in his backpack. “Dr. Parker’s job is safety,” Kevin Biniazan, another attorney for Zwerner, said during closings. “A gun changes everything,” he added. “You stop and you investigate. You get to the bottom of it. You get to the bottom of that backpack. You get to the bottom of his pockets, whatever it is. You get to the bottom of it to know whether that gun is real and on campus.” Parker did not testify in the lawsuit. Her attorney had warned jurors about hindsight bias and "Monday morning quarterbacking" in the shooting. “No one could have imagined that a 6-year old, first-grade student would bring a firearm into a school,” Parker’s attorney, Daniel Hogan, told jurors during opening statements. Hogan added that decision making in a public school setting is “cooperative” and “collaborative.” “The law knows that it is fundamentally unfair to judge another person's decisions based on stuff that came up after the fact. The law requires you to examine people's decisions at the time they make them.” Dr. Amy Klinger, an expert in education administration and school safety, testified during the trial that Parker did not breach professional standards, violate protocols or act with indifference, and said it could have been difficult for anyone to foresee the incident. “It was a tragedy that, until that day, was unprecedented,” Douglas told jurors. “It was unthinkable and it was unforeseeable, and I ask that you please not compound that tragedy by blaming Dr. Parker for it.” The shooting occurred on the first day after the student had returned from a suspension for slamming Zwerner's phone two days earlier. Zwerner testified she first heard about the gun prior to class recess from a reading specialist who had been tipped off by students. The shooting occurred a few hours later. Despite her injuries, Zwerner was able to hustle her students out of the classroom. She eventually passed out in the school office. During her trial, Zwerner testified she believed that she had died that day. “I thought I was either on my way to heaven or in heaven," Zwerner said. “But then it all got black. And so, I then thought I wasn't going there. And then my next memory is I see two co-workers around me and I process that I'm hurt and they're putting pressure on where I'm hurt.” Zwerner no longer works for the school district and has said she has no plans to teach again. She has since become a licensed cosmetologist. The student’s mother, Deja Taylor, was sentenced to nearly four years in prison for felony child neglect and federal weapons charges. According to CBS News, an attorney for the family previously said the firearm used in the shooting was locked away on a high closet shelf, but the boy said he took it from his mother's purse on her dresser.
