The teacher shot by 6-year-old student is testifying in her US$40 million lawsuit against former assistant principal

Abby Zwerner appears in court during a hearing on October 29. (Pool/Court TV via CNN Newsource)

The first-grade teacher shot by her 6-year-old student at a Virginia elementary school took the stand to testify Thursday in her civil trial against a former assistant principal, who is accused of ignoring multiple warnings that the boy may have brought a gun to school before the shooting.

“I thought I was dying. I thought I had died,” Abby Zwerner testified Thursday, recounting the moment she was shot in the hand and chest on January 6, 2023, while sitting at a reading table in her classroom at Richneck Elementary School.

“The look on the student’s face is the large memory that I have,” Zwerner said Thursday.

Zwerner has filed a US$40 million lawsuit against ex-assistant principal Ebony Parker, saying Parker failed to act when several people approached her with concerns the boy had brought a gun to school.

The civil trial offers a peek inside some of the key details that will be presented during the criminal case next month against Parker, who faces eight counts of felony child neglect.

Filing charges against school officials in the aftermath of a school shooting is rare, a law professor at the University of Virginia told CNN, and this case could set a precedent for future events as US communities grapple with questions of responsibility after a school is scarred by gun violence.

It remains an increasingly pervasive problem: As of Monday, there have been 64 school shootings in the United States so far this year, 27 of which took place on K-12 school grounds.

Official ignored warning signs, lawsuit alleges

Zwerner described the consequences of the physical trauma wrought by the shooting. Because of her injury, which prompted multiple surgeries, Zwerner is unable to fully use her left hand to this day, she said.

“Overall, I would say I do struggle with things, doing things,” she said, like opening a bag of chips and water bottles.

She also testified to lingering emotional trauma such as being afraid to go out in public with her mother and sister and feeling distant from friends.

“I just want to stay home,” she said.

The lawsuit alleges Parker ignored concerns and warning signs brought up by several teachers and staff members, including that the student may have had a gun in his possession hours before the shooting at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia.

Parker is accused of ignoring “warnings from teachers and staff that students had seen the firearm” and that the student had “removed an object that was likely a firearm from his backpack before it was searched,” the complaint states.

A guidance counselor and administrator at the elementary school said Parker also “forbade” teachers from searching the 6-year-old for a firearm, saying his mother would pick him up soon, the complaint says.

Additionally, Parker was informed by Zwerner that the student was in a “violent mood,” according to the complaint.

The boy was required to be accompanied by a parent during the school day during the first half of the school year “because of his violent tendencies.” But the day of the shooting, school administrators “allowed him to remain unaccompanied without a companion during the school day,” the complaint says.

During the previous school year, the boy strangled and choked a teacher and pulled up a female classmate’s dress and touched her inappropriately on the school playground, the lawsuit details.

Poor decisions led up to the “avoidable” shooting, a grand jury report found last April.

Parker’s attorney has previously not responded to CNN’s request for comment. On Thursday, during cross-examination, an attorney for Parker worked to undercut Zwerner’s claims about the shooting, limiting her willingness to go out in public.

The attorney presented evidence Zwerner had attended concerts since the shooting, including the Taylor Swift Eras tour.

The attorney also sought to undermine claims Zwerner is physically hindered by her wounds, asking Zwerner how she successfully attended and graduated from cosmetology school if she had physical limitations.

Zwerner was proud of graduating but was often in pain, she said. She has yet to get a job in cosmetology and can’t work in the field until after her hand heals from her latest surgery, she said.

Parker resigned two weeks after the shooting and the principal was reassigned to another school. The incident also led the school board to vote out the superintendent.

Teacher’s witnesses describe emotional toll

The third day of testimony began with Zwerner’s attorneys calling to the stand a psychiatrist who testified Zwerner has suffered post-traumatic stress disorder in the wake of the shooting.

Zwerner had overcome mental stressors in the past, Dr. Clarence Watson testified, like when she had a heavy workload in college or soon after her father’s sudden death. But the shooting was “like throwing gasoline on top of the fire,” causing her recurring nightmares.

“She has lost the sense of being safe, something that she had not experienced before, even when she was feeling depressed or anxious … She now doesn’t want to go anywhere,” Watson said. “She had become socially withdrawn and isolated, pulled away from friends, didn’t want to be in public as much, and felt fear in places that she didn’t feel fear before.”

On Wednesday, Zwerner wiped away tears as her twin sister reflected Wednesday on the changes she’s seen in Zwerner since the first-grade teacher was shot by her 6-year-old student more than two years ago.

“She’s just not the person that she was,” Hannah Zwerner told the court, saying the shooting dimmed a sister who used to be a bright light.

“She had a lot to be excited about. And she doesn’t anymore.”

Injuries were devastating

The chief of surgery where Zwerner was hospitalized testified Tuesday 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.

After two weeks in the hospital and six surgeries, Zwerner is left with a hand that will never be normal, orthopedic surgeon James Stuart told the court.

A now-retired corporal from the Newport News Sheriff’s Office testified Wednesday 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 cam footage and police scene photographs into evidence.

In another emotional courtroom moment in December 2023, Zwerner read a statement during the sentencing of the student’s mother on charges related to the shooting.

“The boy pointed the gun directly at me and shot. The single bullet went through my left hand and lodged into my upper left chest, leaving traces of bullet fragments in both areas that will remain forever,” Zwerner said at the time.

“When this happened and emergency responders worked to keep me alive, I was not sure whether it would be my final moment on earth.”

School official is only defendant

Parker is the only defendant in the lawsuit filed months after the shooting. A judge previously dismissed the other original defendants, including the Newport News School Board, the district’s former superintendent and the former school principal, the Associated Press reported.

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

The boy was not charged with any wrongdoing.

The gun used in the shooting was purchased by the boy’s mother, kept on the top shelf of her closet and was secured by a trigger lock, an attorney for the mother previously told CNN.

However, prosecutors later said authorities found no trigger lock and no key to a trigger lock. The boy stood on a dresser drawer and took the gun from his mother’s purse. He then brought the gun to school in his backpack, police said.

The boy’s mother had no criminal record and cooperated with authorities since the shooting. She turned herself in to police after state charges were filed against her and was released after posting a $5,000 bond.

Case could set precedent

Because attempts to hold school officials criminally accountable for school shootings are rare, this case could set a precedent, said Darryl K. Brown, a law professor at the University of Virginia.

The closest thing to something like the case against Parker is when charges were filed against the deputy who stayed outside during the mass shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, he said. The deputy in that case was acquitted on all counts against him in 2023.

As of October 26, there have been 356 mass shootings in the US this year, leaving at least 300 people dead and 1,600 injured, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive, which, like CNN, defines a mass shooting as one that injured or killed four or more people.

Charging school officials for neglect appears to be an “emerging strategy,” Brown said.

“It seems to be kind of the only strategy left that we can put responsibility on the people who provide access to guns, at least to children, at least to school children and children under 16 or 18,” Brown said.

He added that the civil trial could be a “dry run” for what’s to come in the criminal case.

“Everyone on both sides the prosecution and the defense should have a very clear idea of what the evidence is going to be and what the witnesses are going to say,” the professor said.

The cases could end up setting “a very big” precedent and lead to school officials more aware of their duties to act on any information they have about a child with a gun or who poses a danger to students and staff, Brown said.

Cindy Von Quednow, Chris Boyette, CNN