A Virginia schoolteacher who was shot by her 6-year-old student in 2023 was awarded $10 million in damages by a jury on Thursday, concluding a negligence lawsuit she brought against a school administrator.
Abigail Zwerner alleged that an assistant principal at the Newport News elementary school where she used to teach ignored multiple reports that a firearm was on school property and likely in the possession of the boy who shot her in January 2023.
Police said the boy had taken the 9mm handgun from his home and carried it to school in his backpack. The boy removed the gun once in his classroom and fired a single bullet at Ms. Zwerner, hitting her in her hand and chest. Ms. Zwerner, who evacuated students from her classroom even after she was shot, has had five hand surgeries and still has the bullet lodged in her chest.
Lawyers for Ebony Parker, the former assistant principal at Richneck Elementary where the shooting took place, argued during the trial that she could not have foreseen the shooting.
Ms. Zwerner’s lawyers argued that Ms. Parker had been made aware of reports by fellow students that the 6-year-old boy had brought a gun to school.