{"id":121762,"date":"2025-11-06T21:34:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T21:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/121762\/"},"modified":"2025-11-06T21:34:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T21:34:10","slug":"us-teacher-shot-by-6-year-old-wins-18m-jury-verdict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/121762\/","title":{"rendered":"US teacher shot by 6-year-old wins $18m jury verdict"},"content":{"rendered":"

A jury in Virginia overnight awarded US$10 million ($18 million) to a former teacher who was shot by a 6-year-old student and later accused an ex-administrator in a lawsuit of ignoring repeated warnings that the child had a gun.<\/p>\n

The jury returned its decision against Ebony Parker, a former assistant principal at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News.<\/p>\n

Abby Zwerner was shot in January 2023 as she sat at a reading table in her first-grade classroom. She had sought US$40 million (NZ$71 million) against Parker in the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

Zwerner spent nearly two weeks in hospital, required six surgeries and does not have the full use of her left hand. A bullet narrowly missed her heart and remains in her chest.<\/p>\n

\"Former<\/p>\n

Former Richneck Elementary School assistant principal Ebony Parker looks back into the courtroom during Abby Zwerner’s lawsuit against her. (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n

Parker was the only defendant in the lawsuit. A judge previously dismissed the district\u2019s superintendent and the school principal as defendants.<\/p>\n

The shooting sent shock waves through this military shipbuilding community and the country at large, with many wondering how a child so young could gain access to a gun and shoot his teacher.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit said Parker had a duty to protect Zwerner and others from harm after being told about the gun. Zwerner\u2019s attorneys said Parker failed to act in the hours before the shooting after several school staff members told her that the student had a gun in his backpack.<\/p>\n

The morning’s headlines in 90 seconds, including dozens hurt in Rotorua bus crash, a new summons for Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, and a pricey slice of high country luxury. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

“Who would think a 6-year-old would bring a gun to school and shoot their teacher?” Zwerner\u2019s attorney, Diane Toscano, told the jury. “It\u2019s Dr Parker\u2019s job to believe that that is possible. It\u2019s her job to investigate it and get to the very bottom of it.”<\/p>\n

Parker did not testify in the lawsuit. Her attorney, Daniel Hogan, had warned jurors about hindsight bias and “Monday morning quarterbacking” in the shooting.<\/p>\n

“You will be able to judge for yourself whether or not this was foreseeable,” Hogan said. “That\u2019s the heart of this case.<\/p>\n

“The law knows that it is fundamentally unfair to judge another person\u2019s decisions based on stuff that came up after the fact. The law requires you to examine people\u2019s decisions at the time they make them.”<\/p>\n

\"Abby<\/p>\n

Abby Zwerner’s attorney Diane Toscano confers with her colleague Jeffrey Breit during Zwerner’s lawsuit. (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n

The shooting occurred on the first day after the student had returned from a suspension for slamming Zwerner\u2019s phone two days earlier.<\/p>\n

Zwerner testified she first heard about the gun prior to class recess from a reading specialist who had been tipped off by students. The shooting occurred a few hours later. Despite her injuries, Zwerner was able to hustle her students out of the classroom. She eventually passed out in the school office.<\/p>\n

Zwerner testified she believed that she had died that day.<\/p>\n

“I thought I was either on my way to heaven or in heaven,” Zwerner said. “But then it all got black. And so, I then thought I wasn\u2019t going there. And then my next memory is I see two co-workers around me and I process that I\u2019m hurt and they\u2019re putting pressure on where I\u2019m hurt.”<\/p>\n

Zwerner no longer works for the school district and has said she has no plans to teach again. She has since become a licensed cosmetologist.<\/p>\n

\"Former<\/p>\n

Former Richneck Elementary School teacher Abby Zwerner looks back into the courtroom during her civil lawsuit trial. (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n

Parker faces a separate criminal trial this month on eight counts of felony child neglect. Each of the counts is punishable by up to five years in prison in the event of a conviction.<\/p>\n

The student\u2019s mother was sentenced to nearly four years in prison for felony child neglect and federal weapons charges. Her son told authorities he got his mother\u2019s handgun by climbing onto a drawer to reach the top of a dresser, where the firearm was in his mum\u2019s purse. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A jury in Virginia overnight awarded US$10 million ($18 million) to a former teacher who was shot by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":121763,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[67,42,43,64,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-121762","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-crime-and-justice","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-north-america","12":"tag-top-news","13":"tag-top-stories","14":"tag-topnews","15":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}