Teacher shot by six-year-old student files US$40 million lawsuit
Published:Monday | April 3, 2023 | 12:13 PM
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A first-grade Virginia teacher who was shot and seriously wounded by her six-year-old student filed a lawsuit Monday seeking $40 million in damages from school officials, accusing them of gross negligence for allegedly ignoring multiple warnings on the day of the shooting that the boy had a gun and was in a “violent mood.”
Abby Zwerner, a 25-year-old teacher at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia was shot in the hand and chest on January 6 as she sat at a reading table in her classroom.
She spent nearly two weeks in the hospital and has had four surgeries since the shooting.
The shooting rattled the military shipbuilding community and sent shock waves around the country, with many wondering how a child so young could get access to a gun and shoot his teacher.
The lawsuit names as defendants the Newport News School Board, former Superintendent George Parker III, former Richneck principal Briana Foster Newton and former Richneck assistant principal Ebony Parker.
Michelle Price, a spokesperson for the school board, Lisa Surles-Law, chair of the school board, and other board members did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment on the lawsuit.
The former superintendent did not immediately return a message seeking comment left on his cell phone.
A message left on a cell phone listing for Ebony Parker was not immediately returned.
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