Former Richneck Elementary teacher Abigail Zwerner has testified on assistant principal Ebony Parker’s alleged failure to act on warnings that a 6-year-old student had brought a gun to school before shooting her. A jury awarded Zwerner $10 million in the civil case which weighed Parker’s potential legal responsibility. Zwerner said the shooting caused lasting physical pain and emotional trauma, including difficulty using her hand.
Parker’s attorneys argued her actions met professional standards and the incident was unforeseeable. Teachers Jennifer West and Amy Kovac testified they warned administrators about the child’s alleged firearm, but their alerts were ignored.
Defense experts claimed Parker followed accepted safety procedures given the student’s age. School-safety expert Amy Klinger said, “This is a 6-year-old, this is a little kid. We are not going to just at will start doing body searches on kids, especially when there isn’t good information that would support that at that point.”…