In January 2023, a six-year-old black kid in Virginia went to Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia, and purposefully shot his white teacher, Abby Zwerner.
After he shot Zwerner in the chest, he said "I shot that b**ch dead."
Zwerner survived with a collapsed lung and other injuries, but filed a $40-million lawsuit against the school district, citing years of failure to stop the boy's aggression, even after a 2021 attack where he choked a teacher.
On Thursday, Zwerner was awarded $10 MILLION in damages after a jury found former Vice Principal Ebony Parker guilty of not taking adequate action to stop the boy.
Here's WTOP in Virginia.
The lawsuit said Parker had a duty to protect Zwerner and others from harm after being told about the gun. Zwerner's attorneys said Parker failed to act in the hours before the shooting after several school staff members told her that the student had a gun in his backpack.
'Who would think a 6-year-old would bring a gun to school and shoot their teacher?' Toscano told the jury earlier. 'It's Dr. Parker's job to believe that is possible. 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.
That was the entire defense?
Meanwhile, the student's mom (again, we are talking about a SIX YEAR OLD) was prosecuted by the state (there's been no mention of a father).
The shooting occurred on the first day after the student 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 few 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 believed that she had died that day.
The whole school heard rumors of the gun, even the teacher, and the highest-ranking person who heard, the vice principal, did nothing about it?
The incompetence is staggering.
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