Abby Zwerner claimed Ebony Parker ignored warnings about student
Virginia elementary school teacher Abby Zwerner has named former Richneck Elementary School assistant principal Ebony Parker as the sole defendant in a US$40 million negligence suit centered on a 2023 shooting carried out by a six-year-old student, reported the Associated Press.
Per the suit, Parker ignored four warnings from Zwerner that a student had come to the Newport News elementary school with a gun. The teacher reportedly told Parker that the student “was in a violent mood”, had threatened a kindergartener, and stared down a security officer. A guidance counselor reportedly asked Parker for permission to search the student but Parker refused to grant it.
The day of the shooting, January 6, 2023, marked the student’s return to class after a two-day suspension for slamming Zwerner’s phone. The student shot Zwerner in the hand and chest while the teacher was sitting at a reading table in the classroom. After sustaining her injuries, Zwerner herded the other students out of the classroom and was the last to leave the scene, per surveillance footage.
Newport News police chief Steve Drew reported that a school employee restrained the student after hearing the gunfire. The student was then taken into custody by police.
Zwerner needed six surgeries and lost full use of her left hand. Her chest still holds a bullet.
In opening statements for the case’s trial, which opened this week, Zwerner’s attorney Diane Toscano noted that Parker was authorized to search the student, take him out of the classroom, and alert the police; however, the school administrator did not act.
Parker’s attorney, Daniel Hogan, urged jurors to consider whether the student’s attack could have been predicted. He described the decision-making process in public schools as “collaborative.”
“No one could have imagined that a 6-year old, first-grade student would bring a firearm into a school,” Hogan said in a statement published by AP News. “You will be able to judge for yourself whether or not this was foreseeable. That’s the heart of this case.”
A judge had dropped the district superintendent and the school principal from the suit. Meanwhile, Parker is set to appear in a criminal trial next month after she was charged with eight counts of felony child neglect in addition to Zwerner's suit. Prosecutors said the felony counts corresponded to each of the bullets that posed danger to Zwerner’s students; if convicted, Parker faces a maximum of five years in jail for each count.
The student’s mother, who owned the gun used in the shooting, was convicted on charges of felony child neglect and using marijuana while possessing a firearm.
