NEED TO KNOW
- Abby Zwerner was awarded $10 million by a jury after she was shot by a 6-year-old boy in a Virginia classroom
- Zwerner sued the school’s former assistant principal for failing to prevent the shooting
- She had sought $40 million in the lawsuit
A jury awarded $10 million to the former first-grade teacher who was shot by a 6-year-old boy in a classroom in 2023.
Abby Zwerner filed a lawsuit naming former assistant principal Ebony Parker as a defendant in the wake of the 2023 shooting that wounded the former. The verdict, which was reported by CNN and WTKR, was reached on Thursday, Nov. 6.
Zwerner was shot at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Va., by the 6-year-old boy.
The lawsuit claimed that Zwerner suffers from “physical pain and mental anguish” since the shooting. She had sought $40 million.
“…Abby was shot by a six-year-old student, and she will never be the same,” Zwerner’s attorney, Diane Toscano previously said in a statement. “She has endured four surgeries and still has a bullet lodged inside her.”
During the trial, Zwerner testified that she believed she had died after being shot, according to the Associated Press.
“I thought I had died. I thought I was either on my way to heaven or in heaven,” Zwerner said, according to the AP. “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.”
The suit claimed that Parker did not act despite multiple reports of the student having a gun.
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It alleged four different people came forward with concerns to Parker about the student on the day of 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 said in court, according to the AP. “You will be able to judge for yourself whether or not this was foreseeable. That’s the heart of this case.”
Parker also faces child abuse charges connected to the shooting, according to Virginia court records.
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