Abigail Zwerner, an ex-first-grade teacher at Richneck Elementary School located in Newport News, Virginia, almost lost her life on January 6th, 2023, when her six-year-old student shot her during the school day. A lawsuit was filed against the Richneck School District by Zwerner’s legal team shortly after the shooting on April 3rd, 2023. reported by the New York Post. Zwerner’s team is pleading the case that the administrators at the time of the shooting were negligent and reportedly knew about the student having a gun in his possession, yet failed to act before the shooting took place, and is seeking $40 million in damages. Slowly, each defendant’s case was dismissed until only Ebony Parker was left. Parker was the assistant principal at Richneck at the time the situation occurred, and is being accused of knowing about the gun and failing to investigate those claims. After two years of hearings, the civil trial could finally move forward and began last week on October 28th.
On that day in January, the young child, only referred to as JT in court, who had a history of outbursts and had just recently returned to the school after a suspension announced by CNN, reportedly told several students that he had a gun in his backpack. Zwerner was aware of the rumors and texted another member of staff, Amy Kovac. Kovac was also aware of the rumor due to multiple students telling her.
When questioned on why she didn’t tell Parker herself, Zwerner stated, while on the stand, as reported by ABC, “ I knew that she [Kovac] was going to tell Dr. Parker,”
Kovac decided to take it upon herself to search JT’s backpack, but the gun wasn’t anywhere to be found, which wasn’t surprising because Zwerner also texted Kovac about seeing JT remove an item from his backpack and put it in his pocket. Kovac stated that she reported these claims to Parker, but was met with dismissal. According to WTKR News, Parker was told about the gun by three other teachers, but failed to investigate.
Then, at 1:58 P.M., Zwerner was shot in her hand and chest. The bullet went through her hand, which she had raised, and entered her chest cavity through her armpit. As of now, the bullet remains in her body as a means to keep her alive.
“The moment went by very fast,” Zwerner reported on the stand, as told by CBS.
She also testified that she thought she had died at that moment. “ I thought I was dying, I thought that I had died. I thought I was on my way to heaven or in heaven…”
At the time of writing this, Zwerner’s team and Parker’s defense have both rested their cases, and the jury will ultimately make any further decisions. In a separate criminal trial that will take place next month, Parker is also facing eight counts of felony child neglect.