Virginia teacher shot by 6-year-old in school wins $10M verdict in negligence case

A six-year-old student, who shot a former Virginia school teacher two years ago, was awarded $10million in damages by a jury on Thursday.

Abigail Zwerner was seriously wounded and required multiple surgeries after the incident. During her trial, she testified that “I thought I had died”.

Zwerner had filed a $40m lawsuit against the former assistant principal Ebony Parker, alleging that Parker failed to act when warned that the young boy might have brought a gun to school that day. The panel of three men and four women found that Parker’s inaction amounted to gross negligence, BBC reported.

In January of 2023, the child fired a single shot at Zwerner as she taught her first-grade class at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia. The bullet passed through her hand and into her chest.

“The look on the student’s face is the large memory that I have,” Zwerner testified. The court heard that Parker had been warned of the gun some 45 minutes before the shooting.

The lawsuit argued that Parker committed “a willful act or omission in the care” of students at the elementary school that was “so gross, wanton, and culpable as to show a reckless disregard for human life”. It also cited an instance in which Zwerner told Parker the child was in a “violent mood” and had made threats against another pupil. Parker allegedly “had no response” and refused to “even look up” when concerns were raised.

Parker’s defence counsel argued that she could not have known what would happen and that Zwerner had exaggerated the extent of her injuries.

A criminal case will follow the civil trial. Parker faces eight counts of felony child neglect, each punishable by up to five years in prison. The student’s mother was sentenced to nearly four years in prison for child neglect and federal weapons charges. The pupil was not charged and is reportedly in the care of a relative and enrolled at a different school.