Newport News elementary school teacher Abigail Zwerner, center, was honored in the Virginia Senate Chamber on Feb. 2, 2023 a month after being shot in her classroom by a six-year-old with a firearm. Zwerner was shot in her hand and chest. No students were injured. (Photo by Nathaniel Cline/Virginia Mercury)
Abigail Zwerner, the Richneck Elementary School teacher who was shot and seriously wounded by a 6-year-old student,deserves every penny of the $10 million that a Newport News Circuit Court judge approved recently. A jury in the civil case had awarded that amount against a former Richneck assistant principal in the 2023 attack.
Attorneys for the former assistant principal, Ebony Parker, could appeal. They contend the case should have been considered a worker’s compensation issue andthat a teacher getting shot was among normal risks of the job…