A 6-year-old student shot a teacher in Virginia, and the instructor sued school officials for $40 million, claiming they disregarded staff and student concerns that the boy was carrying a gun.
In-depth details about Virginia school officials are being sued for $40 million after a teacher was shot by a 6-year-old student
Given the attacker’s young age and the fact that police claimed the youngster intentionally shot his first-grade teacher, Abigail Zwerner, on January 6, the attack in Newport News was rare among school shootings in the United States.
According to the complaint, Richneck Elementary School Assistant Principal Ebony Parker neglected her responsibility to keep Zwerner safe despite many claims that a gun was on school grounds and probably in the boy’s hands.
Parker couldn’t be reached right away for comment. After the shooting, she gave notice.
The Newport News School Board, the former Richneck principal Briana Foster Newton, who was given another position in the system, and former school superintendent George Parker were also named as defendants.
Zwerner claimed that school administrators were aware of the student’s history of assaults on students and staff and permitted the youngster to return to Richneck in 2022 after he had been expelled for acting violently.
Although a search of the teenager’s possessions before the shooting did not turn up any weapons, school officials have acknowledged that they had received concerns that the boy had a gun at school.
An inquiry for comment was not immediately answered by a representative of Newport News Public Schools. Parker & Foster’s legal counsel could not be immediately reached for comment.
After the youngster shot the 25-year-old teacher once with a revolver he took from home, hurting her in the hand and chest, the police lauded her as a hero for ordering the students out of her classroom.
The youngster’s mother may be held accountable if it is discovered that she failed to properly secure the firearm in her home, according to legal experts, despite the fact that a prosecutor in Virginia announced he would not seek charges against the boy.
In a statement, the boy’s family claimed that the handgun he used was “secured” at home, that he has a “acute disability,” and that as part of a school care plan, one of his parents attended classes with him daily.
According to the statement, the week of the shooting was the first time neither parent attended class with him.
