A former teacher shot by student, 6, wins $10M jury verdict against ex-assistant principal

NEWPORT NEWS Va AP A jury in Virginia awarded million Thursday to a former trainer who was shot by a -year-old apprentice siding with her proposes in a lawsuit that an ex-administrator ignored repeated warnings that the child had a gun The jury returned its decision against Ebony Parker a former assistant principal at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News Abby Zwerner was shot in January as she sat at a reading table in her first-grade classroom She had sought million against Parker in the lawsuit Zwerner spent nearly two weeks in the hospital required six surgeries and does not have the full use of her left hand A bullet narrowly missed her heart and remains in her chest Zwerner did not address reporters outside the courthouse after the decision was declared One of her attorneys Diane Toscano reported the verdict sends a message that what happened at the school was wrong and is not going to be tolerated that safety has to be the first concern at school I think it s a great message Parker was the only defendant in the lawsuit A judge previously dismissed the district s superintendent and the school principal as defendants The shooting sent shock waves through this military shipbuilding locality and the country at large with a large number of wondering how a child so young could gain access to a gun and shoot his trainer The lawsuit disclosed Parker had a duty to protect Zwerner and others from harm after being explained about the gun Zwerner s attorneys commented Parker failed to act in the hours before the shooting after several school staff members advised her that the pupil had a gun in his backpack Who would think a -year-old would bring a gun to school and shoot their professor Toscano reported the jury earlier It s Dr Parker s job to believe that is attainable It s her job to investigate it and get to the very bottom of it Parker did not testify in the lawsuit Her attorney Daniel Hogan had warned jurors about hindsight bias and Monday morning quarterbacking in the shooting You will be able to judge for yourself whether or not this was foreseeable Hogan disclosed That s the heart of this situation The law knows that it is fundamentally unfair to judge another person s decisions based on stuff that came up after the fact The law requires you to examine people s decisions at the time they make them Ken Trump president of the National School Safety and Protection Services a consulting firm based in Cleveland Ohio revealed the verdict should put school leaders on notice to act when they are warned about students with guns and other threats If you have information about a threat to aspirant and staff safety it is not just see something say something ' Trump noted in a comment Thursday School administrators and staff need to also know how to do something The shooting occurred on the first day after the attendee had returned from a suspension for slamming Zwerner s phone two days earlier Zwerner testified she first heard about the gun prior to class recess from a reading specialist who had been tipped off by students The shooting occurred a limited hours later Despite her injuries Zwerner was able to hustle her students out of the classroom She eventually passed out in the school office Zwerner testified she considered that she had died that day I thought I was either on my way to heaven or in heaven Zwerner announced But then it all got black And so I then thought I wasn t going there And then my next memory is I see two co-workers around me and I process that I m hurt and they re putting pressure on where I m hurt Zwerner no longer works for the school district and has noted she has no plans to teach again She has since become a licensed cosmetologist Parker faces a separate criminal trial this month on eight counts of felony child neglect Each of the counts is punishable by up to five years in prison in the event of a conviction The scholar s mother was sentenced to nearly four years in prison for felony child neglect and federal weapons charges Her son explained agents he got his mother s handgun by climbing onto a drawer to reach the top of a dresser where the firearm was in his mom s purse