Virginia jury awards $10M to teacher, ex-assistant principal liable

A Virginia jury on Thursday awarded $10 million to a former first grade teacher who was shot by a 6 year old student in a Newport News classroom in January 2023, finding a former assistant principal liable for failing to act after being warned the child might have a gun. The verdict in favor of Abby Zwerner, who sued Ebony Parker for gross negligence, follows a four-day trial in which jurors weighed competing accounts of what school staff knew and when they escalated concerns.

Zwerner was shot while seated at a reading table at Richneck Elementary School on Jan. 6, 2023. She spent nearly two weeks hospitalized, underwent six surgeries and has not regained full use of her left hand. A bullet remains lodged near her chest because doctors have said removing it would be too risky. Zwerner testified that after the shooting she initially thought she had died. "I thought I was either on my way to heaven or in heaven," she said on the witness stand.

The lawsuit alleged that several school employees had reported to Parker that the boy might be carrying a handgun in his backpack but that she failed to investigate or secure the student before he fired. Zwerner's attorney, Diane Toscano,...