Additional Coverage:
- Virginia teacher shot by 6-year-old learns verdict in $40M lawsuit battle over ignored gun warnings (foxnews.com)
Jury Awards $10 Million to Teacher Shot by 6-Year-Old Student
Newport News, VA – A Virginia jury has awarded $10 million in damages to Abigail Zwerner, a former elementary school teacher who was shot by her 6-year-old student, in a landmark civil case against former assistant principal Ebony Parker. The verdict, reached after roughly half a day of deliberations, marks a significant development in a case that has drawn national attention to school safety and accountability.
Zwerner, formerly a teacher at Richneck Elementary School, filed a $40 million lawsuit against Parker, alleging that the administrator dismissed repeated concerns regarding a student potentially bringing a gun to school. On January 6, 2023, Zwerner was shot in the chest and hand, with the bullet narrowly missing her heart and remaining lodged in her chest.
“This verdict is a major step forward in Abby’s long road of healing,” stated Zwerner’s legal team. “It confirms what we’ve said from the beginning – what happened inside Richneck Elementary was wrong and will never be tolerated.
When the City of Newport News and its schools failed to protect their teachers, students, and citizens, we held them accountable through the courts. Now it’s time for the City to ensure Abby receives the justice this verdict represents.”
During closing arguments, Zwerner’s attorney, Kevin Biniazan, sharply criticized Parker’s alleged failure to act on multiple warnings about the child possessing a firearm on school grounds. “A gun changes everything,” Biniazan emphasized, according to WAVY.
“You stop and you investigate.” He further asserted that Parker allegedly ignored numerous attempts by school faculty to alert her to the child’s behavior prior to the shooting.
Conversely, Sandra Douglas, Parker’s attorney, argued that her client exercised “real-time judgment, not hindsight judgments” in the moments leading up to the incident. Douglas reportedly urged the jury to consider only what Dr.
Parker knew at the time and questioned Zwerner’s testimony regarding her post-shooting emotional state. “I’m not minimizing what happened to Ms.
Zwerner,” Douglas stated, “but when someone is asking for $40 million, it’s my job to tell you, there is another side to that story.”
Biniazan countered by highlighting the profound impact of the shooting on Zwerner’s mental health, noting that her life expectancy has reportedly been reduced to 53 years. “When you’re deciding what’s fair and what’s fair, you’re not just deciding tomorrow and what might happen the next day,” Biniazan told WTKR.
“We don’t get to come back here in five, 10, 15 years and bring you all together and ask Ms. Zwerner, ‘How are you doing?
Are you still waking up at nine? Do you still see that face?’”
Zwerner, 25 at the time of the shooting, previously testified about the traumatic experience, stating, “The last thing I remember at the school, I thought I was dying. I thought I had died.
I thought I was either on my way to heaven or in heaven. Then it all went black.
So, then I thought I wasn’t going there.”
In addition to the civil lawsuit, Parker is facing a criminal trial on eight felony counts of child neglect, with prosecutors stating one charge for “each of the eight bullets that endangered students” in Zwerner’s classroom. The child’s mother, Deja Taylor, is currently serving a two-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to child neglect and gun charges.