Va. teacher files lawsuit over her shooting by 6-year-old student

A Virginia teacher filed a $40 million lawsuit Monday, claiming administrators at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News failed to heed multiple warnings that a 6-year-old student had a gun before the boy shot and critically wounded her during class in January.

Abigail Zwerner, 25, is suing Richneck’s former principal and assistant principal, the Newport News School Board and former superintendent George Parker III for gross negligence and failure to report the weapon to authorities in the legal action lodged in Newport News Circuit Court.

The incident drew national attention and stirred outrage in Newport News, where parents and teachers accused school district officials of failing to safeguard students and educators against violence in the city’s schools after a string of shootings in recent years.

The Newport News school board ousted superintendent Parker, and Richneck Assistant Principal Ebony Parker resigned in the wake of the shooting. They are not related. Principal Briana Foster Newton, who denied receiving warnings about the gun, was assigned to a new job.

A spokeswoman for Newport News schools, a representative for Foster Newton and an attorney for the boy’s family did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Nor did the former assistant principal. The former superintendent declined to comment.

The lawsuit alleges that concerned teachers and school employees warned Assistant Principal Parker three times on Jan. 6 that the first-grade student had a gun on him at school. Zwerner claims she also told Assistant Principal Parker in the hours before the shooting that the boy had threatened to beat up a kindergartner and was in a “violent mood.”

“Upon hearing that information, Assistant Principal Parker had no response, refusing even to look up at Plaintiff when she expressed her concerns,” the suit alleges.

The suit alleges the assistant principal also repeatedly failed to act on warnings the boy had a weapon.

Zwerner claims the boy had a “history of random violence” and had strangled a teacher in kindergarten. Two days before the shooting, the lawsuit alleges, the boy smashed Zwerner’s phone and called her and others an inappropriate name.

During recess on Jan. 6, Zwerner informed another teacher she suspected the shooter had a weapon after seeing him remove something from his backpack, the lawsuit alleges. But the other teacher’s search of the boy’s backpack did not turn up the weapon, according to the lawsuit.

The suit alleges the other teacher relayed the information to Parker, telling the assistant principal that the boy may have put the gun in his pocket before the search and taken it outside for recess. Parker replied the boy had small pockets insinuating he couldn’t possibly have a gun on him, according to the lawsuit.

After recess, a student told a teacher that the 6-year-old had shown him a gun while they were on the playground, threatening to shoot him if he told anyone, according to the lawsuit. That teacher relayed the information to the assistant principal through an intermediary, the suit alleges.

A guidance counselor also warned the assistant principal about the boy possibly having a weapon about 45 minutes before the shooting, the suit alleges. The counselor asked to search the boy but was rebuffed by Assistant Principal Parker, it says.

The 6-year-old pulled out the gun and shot Zwerner as she taught her first-grade class shortly before 2 p.m. that Friday , police said. Zwerner relayed the harrowing moment in a recent interview with the “Today” show.

“I remember the gun going off. I remember feeling something,” Zwerner said. “I was terrified. In that moment, my initial reaction was, ‘Your kids need to get out of here. This is not a safe classroom anymore.’ ”

Zwerner said in the interview she was shot through the hand and in the chest. She said students in the class screamed. The Newport News police chief later credited Zwerner with saving lives by ushering the students out of the classroom. The chief said Zwerner was the last to leave.

Zwerner said the bullet collapsed one of her lungs and she fell down upon reaching the school’s office, before she was rushed to the hospital. The boy was restrained by a school employee until officers arrived, police said.

The boy brought the gun from home in a backpack, police said. An attorney for his family said the boy’s mother kept the gun secured with a trigger lock on the top shelf of a closet. He said the boy’s family does not know how he got hold of the weapon. Police have not commented on that characterization.

The lawsuit comes as the local prosecutor is still weighing whether to file any criminal charges in the case. Police turned the probe over to Newport News Commonwealth’s Attorney Howard E. Gwynn roughly six weeks ago.

Gwynn told NBC News the boy will not be charged in the case; under Virginia law, children under 7 are presumed not to be able to form the intent to carry out a crime. Police have said the mother could be charged for failing to properly secure the gun.

“Our objective is the same as it has always been – to be thorough, to be objective, and to apply the law to the facts fairly and impartially,” Gwynn said in a statement earlier this month. “And after that analysis is done, our objective is to charge any person with any crimes that we believe we can prove beyond a reasonable doubt.”