Audit dispute grows

(VIRGINIA) — A Virginia jury found that an assistant principal acted with gross negligence when a then-6-year-old student shot his first grade teacher in a lawsuit filed over the 2023 shooting.

The jury awarded the teacher, Abby Zwerner, $10 million in damages, with award interest beginning on June 1, 2024.

The verdict comes after the jury began deliberations Wednesday afternoon in the high-profile civil case.

Zwerner was shot in January 2023 in her classroom at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia. Her complaint alleged the school’s assistant principal at the time, Ebony Parker, failed to act after being informed multiple times that her student had a firearm on the day of the incident and did not let staff search him prior to the shooting.

Parker did not react as the verdict was read in court on Thursday.

Zwerner’s attorneys said they are “very happy with the outcome.”

“I remember just three years ago, almost to this day, hearing for the first time Abby’s story and thinking that this could have been prevented,” one of the attorneys, Diane Toscano, told reporters outside the courthouse in Newport News. “So now to hear from a jury of her peers that they agree that this tragedy could have been prevented.”

When asked about the payment of the damages, one of Zwerner’s attorneys noted Parker is insured under an insurance policy for the Newport News School Board, but noted there are pending post-trial motions.

The civil complaint, which was seeking $40 million in damages, alleged Parker acted with gross negligence and in “reckless disregard” for Zwerner’s safety and claimed Zwerner continues to suffer pain and emotional distress over the shooting.

The bullet went through Zwerner’s left hand, which she had lifted, and then into her chest, where it remains. She was initially hospitalized with life-threatening injuries, police said.

“Those choices that she made to treat Jan. 6, 2023, like any other day, even though a gun should change everything, is why we’re here,” Zwerner’s attorney, Kevin Biniazan, said during closing arguments on Wednesday.

Biniazan argued there were multiple opportunities for Parker to investigate and take immediate action after several school workers “sounded the alarm” about a possible gun in the school. He said the defense will attempt to play the “blame game” and point the finger at others on staff, but each of them had a “piece of the puzzle” while Parker “had the entire puzzle.”

“A gun changes everything. You stop and you investigate,” he said. “You get to the bottom of it to know whether that gun is real and on campus so you can deal with it. But that’s not what happened.”

On the millions in damages sought, Biniazan asked the jurors, “What number do you arrive at for somebody who didn’t want this and it’s been inserted into her life like a bullet fragment against her spine?”

During the defense’s closing arguments, an attorney for Parker said the case is about “real-time judgments, not hindsight judgments,” and the low likelihood that a 6-year-old boy would have a firearm that day and shoot his teacher.

“It was a tragedy that, until that day, was unprecedented, it was unthinkable and it was unforeseeable, and I ask that you please not compound that tragedy by blaming Dr. Parker for it,” the defense attorney, Sandra Douglas, said.

Zwerner testified during the trial, which began in late October, recounting the moment she was shot.

“I thought I had died,” she recalled on the stand. “I thought I was either on my way to heaven or in heaven. But then it all got black and so I then thought I wasn’t going there.”

“My next memory is, I see two co-workers around me, and I process that I’m hurt, and they’re putting pressure on where I’m hurt,” she continued.

Parker did not testify during the trial.

Three other defendants initially listed in Zwerner’s complaint — two school administrators and the Newport News School Board — were dismissed from the lawsuit ahead of the civil trial.

Zwerner and Parker both resigned following the shooting. Zwerner said she has since completed a cosmetology program but has not yet started working as her hand heals following her most recent surgery.

Parker has also been charged with eight counts of felony child abuse with disregard for life in connection with the shooting — one count for each bullet that was in the gun, according to the Newport News Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office. A trial on the criminal charges is scheduled to start this month.

The student brought the gun from home, police said. His mother, Deja Taylor, was sentenced to two years in state prison for child neglect in connection with the shooting, which she is currently serving. Taylor was also sentenced to 21 months in prison on federal firearm and drug charges, which she has since served.

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