- - Trial underway in $40 million lawsuit filed by a teacher who was shot by a 6-year-old student

and CNN StaffOctober 30, 2025 at 12:55 AM

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Abby Zwerner appears Wednesday in court. - Pool/Court TV

The second day of a civil trial involving a former Virginia elementary school teacher who was shot in her classroom by a 6-year-old student saw emotional testimony Wednesday from her sister along with descriptions of the injuries.

Abby Zwerner, who taught first grade at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, is suing a former assistant principal for $40 million, saying she ignored multiple warnings the boy had a gun in the hours before the January 2023 shooting. Zwerner was shot in the hand and chest as she sat at a reading table.

Here are the key developments from Day 2 of the trial, which is set to continue Thursday.

The chief of surgery where Zwerner was hospitalized testified her injuries were life-threatening. Her lung collapsed and the bullet that remains inside Zwerner’s body just missed her heart, Daniel Munn said. An orthopedic trauma surgeon testified about the details of Zwerner’s devastating hand injury, her multiple surgeries and ongoing recovery.

A now-retired corporal from the Newport News Sheriff’s Department testified about his response to the scene after the shooting. “We were quite taken aback. We didn’t expect to see so young a suspect,” the corporal testified.

Zwerner’s lawyers also introduced body camera footage and police scene photographs into evidence.

Zwerner’s twin sister, Hannah, testified how her sister’s demeanor changed after the shooting: She was full of light, outgoing and silly, but now “she’s just not the person that she was,” Hannah said during her emotional testimony.

The lawsuit accuses former school administrator Ebony Parker of failing to act after four people went to her with concerns the student brought a gun to school.

Zwerner’s attorney, Diane Toscano, said in opening statements Parker made “bad decisions and choices that day.”

Parker had the authority but failed to search the student, remove him from the classroom and call law enforcement, Toscano added.

The shooting occurred on the first day after the student had returned from a suspension for slamming Zwerner’s phone two days earlier, Toscano said. It sent shock waves through the community and the country, with many wondering how a child so young could get access to a gun and shoot his teacher.

Zwerner spent nearly two weeks in the hospital, required six surgeries and does not have the full use of her left hand.

Former school administrator Ebony Parker appears in court on October 28. - Pool/Court TV

“No one could have imagined that a 6-year old, first-grade student would bring a firearm into a school,” Parker’s attorney, Daniel Hogan, told jurors. “You will be able to judge for yourself whether or not this was foreseeable. That’s the heart of this case.”

Hogan said that decision-making in a public school setting is “cooperative” and “collaborative.” He also warned of hindsight bias and “Monday-morning quarterbacking.”

“The law knows that it is fundamentally unfair to judge another person’s decisions based on stuff that came up after the fact,” Hogan said. “The law requires you to examine people’s decisions at the time they make them.”

Parker is the only defendant in the lawsuit. A judge previously dismissed the district’s superintendent and the school principal.

Parker faces a separate criminal trial next month on eight counts of felony child neglect — one for “each of the eight bullets that endangered all the students” in Zwerner’s classroom, prosecutors said.

Criminal charges against school officials following a school shooting are quite rare, experts say. Each of the counts is punishable by up to five years in prison upon a conviction.

The student’s mother was sentenced to a total of nearly four years in prison for felony child neglect and federal weapons charges.

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Source: “AOL General”