A Virginia jury heard closing arguments Wednesday in a $40 million civil case in which they will decide whether an assistant principal acted with gross negligence when a then-6-year-old student shot his first grade teacher.
The teacher, Abby Zwerner, was shot in January 2023 in her classroom at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia. Her complaint alleged the school’s assistant principal at the time, Ebony Parker, failed to act after being informed multiple times that her student had a firearm on the day of the incident and did not let staff search him prior to the shooting.
The bullet went through Zwerner’s left hand and then into her chest, where it remains. She was initially hospitalized with life-threatening injuries, police said.
The civil complaint alleged Parker acted with gross negligence and in “reckless disregard” for Zwerner’s safety and claimed Zwerner continues to suffer pain and emotional distress over the shooting.
“Those choices that she made to treat Jan. 6, 2023, like any other day, even though a gun should change everything, is why we’re here,” Zwerner’s attorney, Kevin Biniazan, said during closing arguments on Wednesday.
Biniazan argued there were multiple opportunities for Parker to investigate and take immediate action after several school workers “sounded the alarm” about a possible gun in the school. One, a reading specialist, testified during the trial she reported to Parker that two students told her the 6-year-old boy, referred to as JT during the trial, had a gun in his backpack.
When she later searched JT’s backpack during recess, it wasn’t there, but she said Zwerner told her she had seen him remove something from his backpack beforehand and put it in his pocket.
Another teacher testified a student told her in tears he saw JT with a gun and bullet during recess and JT said he would hurt everyone if the student told anyone. The teacher said she reported this to the front office, and a music teacher who answered the phone testified that he relayed this to Parker.
A guidance counselor testified that, when he asked about searching JT for a gun, Parker said to wait for the student’s mom to come pick him up from school. Before that happened, the student took the gun out of his pocket and shot Zwerner, he said.
Biniazan said the defense will attempt to play the “blame game” and point the finger at others on staff, but each of them had a “piece of the puzzle” while Parker “had the entire puzzle.”
“A gun changes everything. You stop and you investigate,” he said. “You get to the bottom of it to know whether that gun is real and on campus so you can deal with it. But that’s not what happened.”
During the defense’s closing arguments, an attorney for Parker said the case is about “real-time judgments, not hindsight judgments,” and the low likelihood that a 6-year-old boy would have a firearm that day and shoot his teacher.
“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,” the defense attorney, Sandra Douglas, said.
Douglas dissected the testimony from the school staffers and their actions the day of the shooting and how information was conveyed to the administrator. She also referenced testimony from a school safety expert who testified that she determined Parker didn’t violate any protocols on the day of the shooting.
Biniazan addressed the damages being sought in the lawsuit during his closing arguments. He asked the jury to return a verdict of $40 million, saying Zwerner “will never be the same.”
“Somebody might say that’s a lot of money. It is a lot of money, I agree, but do you think, for a moment, she would trade it for what she’s endured?” he said.
Douglas maintained during her closing that Parker did not breach a duty of care and was not grossly negligent. She also questioned testimony in court, such as that Zwerner had become “reclusive” and has difficulty opening a bag of potato chips, citing examples of the plaintiff attending concerts and becoming a licensed cosmetologist in the wake of the shooting.
“I’m not minimizing what happened to Ms. Zwerner. I’m not doing that. I’m doing my job,” Douglas said. “I have to bring the truth and the whole story.”
Following the closing arguments, the judge instructed the jury to begin deliberations once they had received all instructions and materials.
The defense then moved for a mistrial over remarks by the plaintiff’s attorney during the rebuttal closing argument, when Biniazan noted Parker didn’t take the stand during the trial. The defense said it was a “cheap shot” and argued it was a “classic burden shift.” The judge denied the mistrial and the court is now in recess until the jury has a verdict.
Zwerner testified during the trial, which began in late October, recounting the moment she was shot.
“I thought I had died,” she recalled on the stand. “I thought I was either on my way to heaven or in heaven. But then it all got black and so I then thought I wasn’t going there.”
“My next memory is, I see two co-workers around me, and I process that I’m hurt, and they’re putting pressure on where I’m hurt,” she continued.
Three other defendants initially listed in Zwerner’s complaint — two school administrators and the Newport News School Board — were dismissed from the lawsuit ahead of the civil trial.
Zwerner and Parker both resigned following the shooting. Zwerner said she has since completed a cosmetology program but has not yet started working as her hand heals following her most recent surgery.
Parker has also been charged with eight counts of felony child abuse with disregard for life in connection with the shooting — one count for each bullet that was in the gun, according to the Newport News Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office. A trial on the criminal charges is scheduled to start this month.
The student brought the gun from home, police said. His mother, Deja Taylor, was sentenced to two years in state prison for child neglect in connection with the shooting, which she is currently serving. Taylor was also sentenced to 21 months in prison on federal firearm and drug charges, which she has since served.
