“When you hear the word, he told students he brought a gun with him to school, there is that possibility,” Zwerner said.
A teacher suing for $40 million after being shot by her then-6-year-old student testified on Thursday that she wasn’t sure at the time if the child had a real gun until he pulled it out of his pocket and fired at it her.
According to ABC News, plaintiff Abby Zwerner recounted the 2023 incident to jurors.
In January of that year, Zwerner, then a teacher at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia, was shot by one her students. As part of her testimony, Zwerner stated that she first learned that the student might have a gun after being informed by a reading specialist at the school. The reading specialist, Amy Kovack, testified earlier that two students told her that the 6-year-old a student, J.T., had a firearm in his backpack.
“I knew that she was doing to tell Dr. Parker,” Zwerner said of Kovac after being asked why she didn’t tell then-Principal Ebony Parker directly.
Kovac’s testimony indicates that Zwerner later texted her, saying that she had seen J.T. take something out of his backpack and put it in his pocket ahead of recess. Zwerner, again, said that she expected Kovac to relay that information to the principal.
During recess, Kovac searched J.T.’s backpack but did not find a firearm; the absence of a gun was not surprising, Kovac said, given what Zwerner had written in the text.
“The whole day, I was contemplating it could be real, but it could also not,” Zwerner said in response to a question about whether she had, at any point, suspected that the gun was not real.
“When you hear the word, he told students he brought a gun with him to school, there is that possibility,” Zwerner said.
Zwerner claims that she realized the threat was real when, after recess, he took it out of his jacket and shot her. The bullet went all the way through her left hand, which was elevated in front of her, before penetrating her chest. She was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries.
“I thought I had died,” Zwerner said from the stand. “I thought I was either on my way to heaven or in heaven. But then it all got black and so then I 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.”
The civil lawsuit alleges that Parker acted with gross negligence and “reckless disregard” for Zwerner’s safety.
“At this time, the court finds there is sufficient and credible evidence that the defendant assumed the duty of care, breached that care in a grossly negligent manner, and that breach was the proximate cause of the plaintiff’s harm,” Newport News Circuit Court Judge Matthew Hoffman said, refusing the defense’s motion to strike. “That will be for the jury to decide.”
Sources
Abigail Zwerner testifies she thought she was dead or dying after being shot by 6-year-old student
Teacher suing for $40 million after being shot by her 6-year-old student testifies in civil trial
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