Jurors found a former assistant principal liable Thursday for the 2023 classroom shooting of a teacher by a 6-year-old student, awarding the teacher $10 million in damages.
First-grade teacher Abby Zwerner sued former administrator Ebony Parker, alleging gross negligence, accusing her of repeatedly ignoring warnings that the boy may have brought a handgun to school.
The bullet pierced Zwerner’s left hand and lodged in her chest, narrowly missing her heart, her lawyers told jurors. It remains there because doctors have said removing it would be too dangerous, the attorneys said.
Zwerner testified that she thought she had died. “I thought I was on my way to heaven or in heaven,” she said on the witness stand. “But then it all got black.”
Parker’s lawyer told jurors there was no way she could have anticipated what happened.
“It was a tragedy that, until that day, was unprecedented, it was unthinkable and it was unforeseeable, and I ask that you please not compound that tragedy by blaming Dr. Parker for it,” attorney Sandra Douglas said.
Zwerner had also sued the principal and the school district superintendent, but a judge dismissed them as defendants.
Parker, who resigned shortly after the shooting, was also criminally charged with child abuse in the case. She has pleaded not guilty and is set for trial in coming weeks.
The boy’s mother is serving almost four years in prison after pleading guilty to felony child neglect and federal weapons charges involving the gun the boy used.