Civil trial begins in $40M lawsuit by teacher shot by elementary school student

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (CN) — An attorney for a Virginia assistant principal told a jury Tuesday that there was no way she could have foreseen that a six-year-old student would shoot his teacher at Richneck Elementary School in 2023.

The teacher, Abigail Zwerner, claims Assistant Principal Ebony Parker refused to pull the student out of class, despite three staff members voicing numerous safety concerns throughout the day. Zwerner — who was shot in the chest and hand, and said in her complaint that she has has undergone four surgeries since the shooting — is seeking $40 million in damages.

“It is fundamentally unfair to judge a person’s decision based on stuff that came up after the fact,” Daniel Hogan of Hancock Daniel, representing Parker, said in opening statements Tuesday. “No one could have predicted this. No one could have seen this coming.”

Hogan grilled Zwerner’s witnesses, in an effort to show the jury that all staff members who suspected the student was a threat failed to follow protocol, including removing the student from the class.

The student purportedly had a lengthy history of behavioral issues dating to kindergarten, where he reportedly strangled a teacher, and had destroyed Zwerner’s phone two days before the shooting.

Diane Toscano of Toscano Law Group, representing Zwerner, said in her opening statement Zwerner reported to Parker at 11:30 a.m. the day of Jan. 6, 2023, that the student was in a violent mood after he had threatened to beat up a kindergartener.

Reading specialist Amy Kovac then reportedly told Parker 30 minutes later that she heard from classmates that the student had a firearm. Kovac said she went immediately to Zwerner’s classroom to address the student, who refused to let her open his backpack.

“He was acting so weird,” Kovac testified of the student’s demeanor. “He was curled up. He likes to talk, so usually, you know, he’d be talking or running around.”

Hogan asked why Kovac didn’t confiscate the backpack if she feared it contained a gun.

“You could have just reached on over,” Hogan said. “You were concerned about being overpowered by a six-year-old child?”

Kovac answered that if he knew the student, he would be concerned too.

According to Toscano, Kovac reported back to Parker 20 minutes later that she had found no gun in the student’s backpack while he was at recess, but that he was wearing a jacket large enough to conceal a weapon.

“Does Dr. Parker then decide to remove the child out of recess while he’s out there with all the other students? No,” Toscano said. “Instead, Dr. Parker downplays the report, and she says to Ms. Kovac that he has little pockets.”

Toscano said music teacher Josh Sims, operating the secretary’s desk, called another teacher for an unrelated matter, during which the teacher asked him to inquire with Parker about whether she had searched the student.

Guidance counselor Rolonzo Rawles then reportedly asked Parker if they could search for the gun after hearing from classmates who claimed to have seen the student’s bullets and gun. Parker purportedly denied the request, stating that the boy’s mother would be picking him up soon.

Attorneys representing Parker noted that Rawles did not seek to override Parker’s decision through the principal or to demand the evacuation of students.

Hogan also questioned first-grade teacher Jennifer West, who watched the student on the playground acting strangely after Zwerner had informed her of her belief that he had pulled something from his backpack.

“You had received information that the student might have something that may or may not be a weapon, correct?” Hogan asked West, who answered affirmatively. “Despite that knowledge, you remained on the playground with multiple students, and you allowed that child to continue playing?"

Approximately 18 minutes later, the student shot Zwerner. The bullet pierced her hand before entering her chest and collapsing a lung, where it remains due to the risk associated with its removal. Zwerner has not regained full motion in her left hand. Rawles became emotional on the witness stand when asked to recount what happened during the school lockdown.

“I got on the walkie-talkie and asked if anyone needed assistance, and no one answered,” Rawles said. “I could see speckles of blood on the floor.”

Kovac said she rushed into Zwerner’s classroom, where she saw blood on her legs and immediately contained the student before calling 911.

“I felt like I had a bubble of God around me, and I walked straight to him,” Kovac said, holding back tears.

Newport News Public Schools Human Resources Director Nina Farrish testified to her investigation of the matter and spoke about the school’s safety protocols, which require administrators to assume all threats are serious, remove the student from the classroom and report the threat to the proper authorities.

Sims also took the witness stand, where he affirmed Toscano’s account of the day, saying that Parker never left her desk to check on the incident firsthand. Hogan argued that Parker was busy because the school was conducting make-up state testing.

The gun came from the boy’s home, where an attorney representing the family said the gun, belonging to his mother, was in a locked box. Parker is also charged with eight criminal counts of felony child abuse.

The trial is expected to take at least two weeks.