NEWPORT NEWS — A jury trial will begin Monday in the case of the teacher at Richneck Elementary School who was shot by a 6-year-old student in early 2023.

Abby Zwerner was sitting at a reading table during her first grade reading class on Jan. 6 of that year when the boy drew a 9mm handgun from his hoodie pocket, pointed it at the 25-year-old teacher, and fired a single round from about 10 feet.

The bullet tore through Zwerner’s left hand — which she held up as the boy fired — and struck her in the upper chest and shoulder.

At a trial this week, Zwerner will assert that the school’s assistant principal, Ebony J. Parker, was grossly negligent in failing to take action that could have protected the teacher.

“This day is a long time coming,” said Zwerner’s attorneys, Diane Toscano, Kevin Biniazan, and Jeffrey Breit, in a joint statement. “We trust this process and the common conscience and values of this community to do what is right. We look forward to bringing the events of January 6, 2023 to light.”

Abigail Zwerner, the teacher who was shot at Richneck Elementary School last year, listens as one of her attorneys talks to reporter Peter Dujardin on Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2024. (Stephen M. Katz/The Virginian-Pilot)

Zwerner, now 28, is expected to take the stand to testify about the shooting that gained national attention.

A report by Newport News Commonwealth’s Attorney Howard Gwynn found that Zwerner had disciplinary issues with the 6-year-old in the days leading up to the shooting. That morning, the boy climbed atop his mother’s dresser, grabbed the gun from her purse and stuffed it into his backpack.

After being shot just before 2 p.m. that day, Zwerner managed to shuttle about 18 students out of the classroom before seeking help. She was released from the hospital 10 days later.

The $40 million lawsuit, filed only a couple of months after the shooting, asserted that Parker ignored several credible warnings that the boy was armed in school.

The lawsuit contended that Zwerner approached Parker after 11:15 a.m. to say that the boy was “in a violent mood” and “threatened to beat up a kindergartner during lunchtime.”

But Parker “had no response … refusing even to look up at (Zwerner) when she expressed her concerns,” the complaint says.

Later that morning, other students reported the boy had a gun.

After recess began at 12:30 p.m., Zwerner told the reading specialist and another teacher she had seen the 6-year-old taking something out of his backpack at recess and going behind a concrete wall.

The reading specialist searched the boy’s backpack and didn’t find a gun. But when she went to Parker’s office to voice concern, according to the complaint, Parker dismissed her, saying the boy “has little pockets” — too small for a gun.

Police responded to a shooting that injured teacher Abigail Zwerner at Richneck Elementary in Newport News, Virginia on Jan. 6, 2022. (Billy Schuerman / The Virginian-Pilot)

When recess ended, another student told his teacher the 6-year-old showed him the gun — and threatened to harm him if he told anyone. But when that was relayed to Parker, she said that the boy’s bag already had been searched.

And when a guidance counselor asked to search the boy, Parker said no, noting the boy’s mother would soon be picking him up.

The trial, to be held in Circuit Court Judge Matthew Hoffman’s courtroom, is docketed for eight days, with jury selection expected to take up Monday.

Several other Richneck teachers and employees are expected to testify, as are medical experts who have treated Zwerner. The shooter’s parents and grandfather are also on the witness list.

Jurors are expected to watch surveillance footage from outside the classroom and view body camera footage from responding police officers. Text messages between Zwerner and others also will be introduced.

Court TV is expected to broadcast the trial beginning Tuesday.

Any verdict against Parker is expected to be paid by the Virginia Risk Sharing Association, or VRSA, an insurance pool made up of many public bodies statewide, including the Newport News School Board.

Parker is covered under that policy because she was working for the school division at the time of the shooting. Moreover, the VRSA — not Parker — has been paying the legal fees for the two Richmond attorneys representing her.

But there’s a potential issue with Parker’s coverage if she’s convicted in a pending criminal case.

Parker faces eight counts of felony child neglect in a three-day jury trial scheduled to begin in late November. If she is convicted, experts say, the Virginia Risk Sharing Association could attempt to deny Parker coverage in the civil case.

Police responded to a shooting that injured teacher Abigail Zwerner at Richneck Elementary on Jan. 6 in Newport News.

Though settlements on the eve of trial are common in civil cases, there appears to be no movement on that front. Hoffman has not ordered a settlement conference, and there’s nothing in the public record to suggest any discussions have been taking place.

Attorneys for Parker — John B. Mumford Jr. and Sandra M. Douglas from Hancock Daniel — did not return phone calls Friday, including on whether they have made a settlement offer.

Zwerner’s legal team declined to say on Friday whether they have made any such offers.

But a dispute over whether Zwerner’s claim should actually be a worker’s compensation issue is still percolating.

The Newport News School Board and its lawyers have long maintained that since Zwerner was a work at the time, her injuries from the shooting is a matter of worker’s comp and not a personal injury lawsuit.

Last November, Hoffman rejected the school board’s assertion that the former teacher’s only option was filing a worker’s compensation claim, ruling that being shot by a student isn’t an expected risk of teaching first graders.

But if Zwerner is victorious at trial, Parker’s attorneys are expected to resurrect that stance on appeal.

And the School Board’s lawyers likely will back that contention.

“We maintain our original position that at the end of the day, this case is going to be a workers’ compensation case,” said the board’s attorneys, Rick Matthews and Anne Lahren of Pender & Coward.

If the Virginia Supreme Court agrees, any jury verdict Zwerner wins could be tossed.

The Newport News School Board — the seven-member body that oversees the city’s schools — initially was named as a defendant. Also named as defendants were Parker, former School Superintendent George Parker III (no relation to Ebony), and Richneck Principal Briana Foster Newton.

But last July, Hoffman allowed the case to proceed against Ebony Parker while tossing the cases against the other two administrators.

Hoffman said Zwerner had raised sufficient facts about Parker’s conduct that could support a finding that she failed to protect Zwerner — though he said whether Parker actually assumed such a duty is a question for the jury.

Attendees hold their heads down for a prayer during a Jan. 9 vigil for Abby Zwerner, the teacher shot by a 6-year-old student at Richneck Elementary, in front of the Newport News Public Schools Administration Building.

The School Board was dropped as a defendant following a recent Virginia Supreme Court decision that school boards hold sovereign immunity from personal injury claims.

Separately, the boy’s mother, Deja Taylor, now 28, was convicted in federal court of lying on a gun purchase background check in saying she wasn’t a marijuana user. She was also convicted of having the gun while in possession of weed.

In state court case, Taylor was convicted of one count of felony child neglect.

Taylor completed her 21-month federal sentence in February. She’s now serving a two-year state sentence at the Virginia Correctional Center for Women, with a release date of May.

Peter Dujardin, 757-897-2062, pdujardin@dailypress.com

 

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