Jury Awards $10 Million to First-Grade Teacher Shot by Student After Repeated Warnings Were Ignored

On January 6, 2023, Abby Zwerner was teaching a first-grade class at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia, when a 6-year-old student drew a handgun and shot her. The bullet pierced her left hand and lodged in her chest. She was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries. The bullet remained in her body.

The civil case named Ebony Parker, the school's then-assistant principal, as defendant. Zwerner's legal team presented evidence that multiple school staff members had reported to Parker earlier that morning that the student appeared to have a firearm. Parker received those warnings and did not authorize anyone to search the child. The shooting occurred hours later.

A threshold legal question shaped the entire case. Virginia's sovereign immunity doctrine shields public employees from ordinary negligence claims. The Newport News Circuit Court ruled before trial that Zwerner could only pursue a gross negligence theory against Parker in her individual capacity, not the simpler standard she might have sought against a private employer. That ruling raised the bar for the jury but left a viable path forward.

Kevin Biniazan and Jeffrey Breit of Breit Biniazan served as co-counsel for Zwerner alongside Diane Toscano of Toscano Law Group in Virginia Beach. At trial, Biniazan argued that multiple staff members had raised alarms about the gun and that Parker treated the day as routine despite those reports. Parker did not testify. At the time of the civil verdict, she also faced separate criminal charges of eight counts of felony child abuse arising from the same incident.

On November 6, 2025, the jury found Parker grossly negligent and returned a $10 million verdict, including pre-judgment interest. Virginia Lawyers Weekly reported that post-trial motions remained pending following the verdict, with the award stayed pending a post-judgment hearing. Parker's criminal case was proceeding on a parallel track at that time.