On Thursday, a jury awarded a Virginia school teacher, who was shot by her 6-year-old student in 2023, $10 million in damages, concluding a negligence lawsuit she filed against the school administrator. This was reported by Reuters, writes UNN.
Details
Abigail Zwerner claimed that the assistant principal of the Newport News elementary school where she previously taught ignored multiple reports that a firearm was on school grounds and likely in the possession of the boy who shot her in January 2023.
Police said the boy took a 9mm handgun from home and brought it to school in his backpack. The boy then pulled out the gun in his classroom and fired one bullet at Zwerner, hitting her in the hand and chest. Zwerner, who evacuated students from her classroom even after being shot, underwent five surgeries on her arm, and the bullet is still lodged in her chest.
Lawyers for Ebony Parker, the former assistant principal of Richneck Elementary School where the shooting occurred, argued during the trial that she could not have foreseen the shooting.
Zwerner's lawyers argued that Parker was informed by the boy's classmates that the 6-year-old boy had brought a weapon to school. However, she did not react quickly to this information.
Next month, Parker will face criminal court on charges of child abuse and neglect. Deja Taylor, the mother of the boy who committed the shooting, was sentenced to 21 months in prison in 2023 on federal charges of possessing a firearm while using a controlled substance and making false statements when purchasing a firearm.
These lawsuits, along with those of several parents of school shooters in recent years, could set a precedent regarding the degree of responsibility borne by parents and school administrations when it comes to school shootings, which have plagued the United States in recent decades.
Addition
Four people died and at least 12 others were injured in a shooting early Saturday morning in Leland, Mississippi.
On Sunday, October 5, a shooting occurred in the Australian city of Sydney, targeting passersby and cars. The perpetrator fired more than 50 bullets, injuring more than 20 people.