Jury Awards $10M to Teacher Shot by 6-Year-Old After Assistant Principal Allegedly Ignored Repeated Warnings

Former first-grade teacher Abby Zwerner will receive $10 million after a Virginia jury ruled that school officials failed her on the day she was shot by a 6-year-old student.

Zwerner was teaching at Richneck Elementary in January 2023 when the student pulled a gun from his pocket and fired. The bullet struck her hand and chest. “I thought I was dying,” she said in court. She survived but endured six surgeries, permanent injury, and emotional trauma.

Her lawsuit claimed the school’s assistant principal, Ebony Parker, ignored repeated warnings that day. Zwerner had personally told Parker the child was “in a violent mood” and had threatened others. Later, multiple students and a reading specialist reported the child had a gun. Parker allegedly brushed it off, saying his “pockets were too small.”

When a counselor asked to search the boy again, Parker refused.

The child’s violent history was known to school staff, including a prior incident where he choked a kindergarten teacher. Still, no preventative steps were taken.

The student wasn’t charged due to his age. His mother, Deja Taylor, was sentenced to nearly four years for child neglect and gun charges. The gun was allegedly taken from her purse, not locked away as she initially claimed.

Parker resigned after the shooting and faces a separate criminal trial in December on eight felony child neglect charges.