Abigail Zwerner, who was shot in the hand and chest by one of her 6-year-old students at Richneck Elementary School on Jan. 6, has begun the process of suing the Newport News School Board and several of its administrators – including the principal, assistant principal, and the district’s superintendent.
The $40 million lawsuit claims the student had a history of violent behavior and cites several warning signs that were ignored on the day of the shooting – each of which would have prevented the shooting from happening.
The school’s assistant principal, Ebony Parker, is at the forefront of the criticism.
Concerns over the student’s poor behavior were regularly brought to Parker’s attention but were almost always dismissed with little-to-no action, according to the lawsuit. In some cases, the student would be sent to the principal’s office and would return a short time later with a reward of some sort – like candy.
Two days before the shooting, the student allegedly stole Zwerner’s phone and threw it on the ground – cracking the screen – after refusing to return it. He was only suspended one day for the incident.
He was also involved in an incident where he ‘strangled and choked’ a teacher but was welcomed back to school.
While he was only welcome back if he was accompanied by a parent, that parent wasn’t with him the day of the shooting – it was allegedly the first week that they didn’t accompany their child in class. As for the day of the shooting, Parker had several opportunities to prevent violence but failed on multiple occasions.
The student was already in a violent mood on January 6 prior to the shooting, allegedly threatening to beat up another student and mean-mugging a security officer during lunch. When confronted by Zwerner with the concern, Parker allegedly refused to look at Zwerner.
He reportedly ‘had no response’ to the violent behavior.
A second incident occurred during recess when the student allegedly showed a gun to another student. The boy’s backpack was searched during recess, but Zwerner told Parker she saw him take something out of his bag and into his sweatshirt pocket. Unfortunately, Parker refused to search the boy’s pockets.
Several other teachers brought this concern to Parker, who dismissed them and said it was being dealt with. One of those teachers asked if they could search the boy’s pockets, but Parker forbade the search and said the boy’s mother was on her way to pick him up. The shooting happened less than an hour later.
Abigail Zwerner Wants to Ensure This Doesn’t Happen to Anyone Else
Abigail Zwerner is intent on making sure something like this never happens again and wants school administrators in the US to learn from her experience – making a point out of the ignorance displayed by the school’s assistant principal, Ebony Parker.
It’s claimed that the shooting could’ve been prevented but wasn’t.
In the weeks following the shooting, Parker resigned as assistant principal of Roughneck Elementary School. Not only that but the district’s superintendent, George Parker III, was voted out by the school board and the school’s principal, Briana Foster Newton, was reassigned elsewhere in the district.
Assistant principal resigns at Virginia school where 6-year-old shot teacher Abigail Zwerner https://t.co/FGw9jJSz3u pic.twitter.com/hRgrIbhKMp
— New York Post (@nypost) January 25, 2023
“The Newport News school division had a duty to Abby. But they failed her miserably that day,” said Diane Toscano, an attorney for Zwerner. “In addition to holding the school division accountable for its failures, this lawsuit is a means to deliver justice for Abby in this tragic but entirely preventable situation.”
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The 6-year-old boy who shot Abigail Zwerner on January 6th was described as having an ‘acute disability’ and was immediately admitted to a hospital and has been receiving the treatment he so desperately needs. The gun he used was secured inside their home before he got ahold of it. More details will be revealed soon.