Almost three months after Virginia teacher Abigail Zwerner was shot by a 6-year-old student, the injured educator filed a $40 million lawsuit Monday alleging school administrators shrugged off multiple warnings from staff and students who believed the boy had a gun and posed an imminent threat on the day of the shooting, and did so knowing the child “had a history of random violence.”
The Jan. 6 shooting of Zwerner at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News stunned the country as police announced the child’s actions were intentional. The student shot Zwerner with a 9mm handgun while she sat at a reading table in their first-grade classroom, according to officials.
The complaint, filed in the Circuit Court for the city of Newport News, says Richneck assistant principal Ebony Parker chose to “breach her assumed duty” to protect Zwerner, “despite multiple reports that a firearm was on school property and likely in possession of a violent individual.”
Parker resigned in the wake of the shooting. She could not immediately be reached for comment Monday.
Also named as defendants are the Newport News School Board, former schools Superintendent George Parker III, whom the board voted to remove “without cause,” and Richneck principal Briana Foster Newton, who was transferred to a different role within the district.
Zwerner, 25, is seeking a jury trial, noting in her suit that she suffers from “physical pain and mental anguish.”
Newport News police praised Zwerner for still managing to escort her class of about 20 students to safety even after she was seriously wounded in the hand and her chest.
School knew of boy’s behavioral issues
The lawsuit mentions new details about the 6-year-old boy, who is identified as John Doe, and an alleged pattern of troubling behavior.
While in kindergarten at Richneck in the 2021-22 school year, the boy strangled and choked a teacher and was removed from the school, according to the complaint.
That same school year, the boy also pulled up the…
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