Jury awards $10 million to teacher who was shot by 6-year-old student

A Virginia jury found that an assistant principal acted with gross negligence when a then-6-year-old student shot his first-grade teacher. in a lawsuit filed on the shooting of 2023.

The jury awarded the teacher, Abby Zwerner, $10 million in damages, with award interest beginning June 1, 2024.

The verdict comes after the jury began deliberations Wednesday afternoon in the high-profile civil case.

Zwerner was shot in January 2023 in his classroom at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia. Her complaint alleged that the school’s assistant principal at the time, Ebony Parker, failed to act after being informed several times that her student had a firearm on the day of the incident and did not allow staff to search him before the shooting.

Parker did not react when the verdict was read in court Thursday.

Zwerner’s attorneys said they are “very happy with the outcome.”

“I remember just three years ago, almost to this day, I first heard Abby’s story and thought this could have been avoided,” one of the attorneys, Diane Toscano, told reporters outside the courthouse in Newport News. “So now I will hear from a jury of their peers who agree that this tragedy could have been prevented.”

When asked about paying damages, one of Zwerner’s attorneys noted that Parker is insured under an insurance policy for the Newport News School Board, but noted that there are pending post-trial motions.

The civil suit, which sought $40 million in damages, alleged that Parker acted with gross negligence and “reckless disregard” for Zwerner’s safety and claimed that Zwerner continues to suffer pain and emotional distress from the shooting.

The bullet passed through Zwerner’s left hand, which she had raised, and then entered her chest, where it remains. She was initially hospitalized with life-threatening injuries, police said.

“Those decisions he made to treat January 6, 2023 like any other day, even though a gun should change everything, is the reason we are here,” Zwerner’s attorney, Kevin Biniazan, said during closing arguments Wednesday.

Biniazan argued that Parker had multiple opportunities to investigate and take immediate action after several school workers “raised the alarm” about a possible weapon at the school. He said the defense will try to play the “blame game” and point fingers at other staff members, but each of them had a “piece of the puzzle” while Parker “had the whole puzzle.”

“A gun changes everything. You stop and investigate,” he said. “You get to the bottom of it to find out if that gun is real and if it’s on campus so you can handle it. But that’s not what happened.”

Of the millions in damages sought, Biniazan asked jurors: “What figure do you come up with for someone who didn’t want this and it has inserted itself into your life like a bullet fragment against your spine?”

During the defense’s closing arguments, a lawyer for Parker said the case is about “real-time judgments, not hindsight judgments,” and the low probability that a 6-year-old boy had a gun that day and shot his teacher.

“This was a tragedy that, until that day, was unprecedented, unthinkable and unforeseeable, and I ask that you not compound that tragedy by blaming Dr. Parker for it,” said defense attorney Sandra Douglas.

Zwerner testified during the trial, which began in late October, recounting the moment he was shot.

“I thought he died,” he recalled on the stand. “I thought I was on my way to heaven or in heaven. But then everything went black and then I thought I wasn’t going there.”

“My next memory is that I see two coworkers around me, I process that I’m hurt and they are putting pressure on where I’m hurt,” she continued.

Parker did not testify during the trial.

Three other defendants initially listed in Zwerner’s lawsuit — two school administrators and the Newport News School Board — were dismissed from the suit before the civil trial.

Zwerner and Parker resigned after the shooting. Zwerner said she has since completed a cosmetology program, but has not yet begun work while her hand heals after her most recent surgery.

Parker has also been loaded with eight counts of felony child abuse with disregard for life in connection with the shooting — one count for each bullet in the gun, according to the Newport News Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office. A trial on the criminal charges is scheduled to begin this month.

The student brought the gun from his home, police said. Her mother, Deja Taylor, was sentenced to two years in state prison for child neglect in connection with the shooting, which he is currently serving. Taylor was also sentenced to 21 months in prison on federal firearms and drug charges, which he has since served.