Virginia teacher shot by her six-year-old student awarded $13m in civil trial
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Ms Abigail Zwerner (left) says an assistant principal ignored repeated warnings that a firearm was on school property.
PHOTOS: X, REUTERS
Follow topic:
- Abigail Zwerner, a teacher shot by a six-year-old student, won a US$10 million lawsuit against a school administrator for negligence.
- The lawsuit alleged the assistant principal ignored reports that the boy had a gun at school before the January 2023 shooting.
- The case and related trials may set precedents for responsibility of parents and school leaders in preventing school shootings.
AI generated
RICHMOND - A Virginia school teacher who was shot by her six-year-old student in 2023 was awarded US$10 million (S$13 million) in damages by a jury on Nov 6, concluding a negligence lawsuit she brought against a school administrator.
Ms 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 Ms 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 six-year-old boy had brought a gun to school, and that she did not act quickly on that information.
Ms Parker faces a criminal trial in December on charges of child abuse and neglect.
Deja Taylor, the mother of the boy who carried out the shooting, was sentenced to 21 months in prison in 2023
The trials, along with those of a handful of parents of school shooters in recent years, could set a precedent on the degree of responsibility that parents and school leaders have when it comes to school shootings, which have plagued the United States in recent decades. REUTERS
