A Virginia jury on Thursday awarded $10 million to former first-grade teacher Abby Zwerner, ruling that former Richneck Elementary assistant principal Ebony Parker was liable for failing to act on repeated warnings that a 6-year-old student had a gun on campus, according to CBS News.
The jurors reached a verdict in the civil case nearly three years after the January 2023 classroom shooting in Newport News. Zwerner was shot in the hand and chest and has had multiple surgeries. She has since left teaching. She had sought $40 million in compensatory damages. At the heart of the verdict were allegations that Parker ignored or dismissed a series of staff warnings and declined a request to re-search the child shortly before the shooting, the Associated Press reported.
Because of his age, the student was not charged. According to CBS News, the boy’s mother, Deja Taylor, is serving nearly four years in prison on felony child neglect and federal weapons charges tied to the weapon’s access.
In December, Parker will also have to go to court for a separate criminal case involving eight felony counts of child neglect that came out of the incident. Each count carries a possible five-year sentence, the AP reported.
Zwerner’s case brought national attention to the rules and checks that schools have in place to keep students safe. The jury’s decision caps a week of testimony that included accounts of multiple warnings on the day of the shooting, and Zwerner described believing she had died after being struck, according to CBS News.
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