NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — The teacher shot by a 6-year-old student at Richneck Elementary School on Jan. 6 has filed a $40 million lawsuit against the Newport News School Board, asserting that administrators failed to keep the school safe.
Abigail Zwerner, 25, of York County, contends the first grader’s alarming past behavior should have led to heightened safety precautions at the school. Instead, the complaint says, Richneck’s assistant principal ignored three stark warnings that the boy had a gun.
Richneck’s assistant principal, Ebony Parker, would not even look at Zwerner when she expressed concerns about how the 6-year-old was acting that morning, the complaint says. Parker wouldn’t allow the boy to be searched even after other students told teachers the boy had a gun.
“It was the responsibility of Defendants to supervise (the boy), control him, remove him when necessary for the safety of others, and search him for the firearm that they knew to be in his possession,” says the complaint, filed Monday in Newport News Circuit Court.
Failing to act on the urgent threat, the lawsuit says, shows “a reckless disregard for the safety of all persons on the premises.”
Boy fired a single shot
In the first grade classroom just before 2 p.m. — as Zwerner sat at a reading table and the boy at his desk — he suddenly pulled a gun out of his front hoodie pocket, pointed at his teacher and fired a single round.
The bullet went through Zwerner’s left hand — which she held up as the boy opened fire — and then struck her in the upper chest and shoulder, where it remains today. She managed to shuttle about 18 students out of the classroom before seeking help.
The news that a 6-year-old student shot his teacher made headlines across the country and the world. Zwerner said two weeks ago in an interview with Savannah Guthrie on the “Today” show that she “will never forget” the look on his face just before he fired.
The 20-page complaint — filed by Virginia Beach attorneys Diane Toscano, Kevin Biniazan and Jeffrey Breit — largely echoes the assertions made by Toscano at a news conference and in a notice of claim in January. But the complaint expands on some key points and names staffers involved.
The six-member Newport News School Board is named as the lead defendant. Ebony Parker is also a named, as is former Schools Superintendent George Parker III — no relation to the assistant principal — and former Richneck Principal Briana Foster-Newton.
Boy in ‘a violent mood’
The lawsuit provides an extensive rendition of what Zwerner’s attorneys say happened the day of the shooting.
The 6-year-old “had a history of random violence,” with the boy attacking “students and teachers alike,” the complaint says.
During kindergarten at Richneck the year before, the lawsuit says, the boy “strangled and choked a teacher,” and inappropriately touched a female student who had fallen on a playground. The boy was soon moved from Richneck to the Denbigh Early Childhood Center.
He came back to Richneck in September 2022 to start first grade. But he was soon put on a modified schedule after cursing at staffers and “chasing students around the playground with a belt in an effort to whip them with it.”
Under the new plan, one of the boy’s parents “was required to accompany him at school” every day.
“Teachers’ concerns with (the boy’s) behavior were regularly brought to the attention of Richneck Elementary School administration, and the concerns were always dismissed,” the complaint maintains. In fact, the boy would often come back to class from the school office “with some type of reward, such as a piece of candy.”
On Jan. 4 — two days before the shooting — the boy grabbed Zwerner’s phone and refused to give it back, the complaint says. “He then slammed the cellphone on the ground so hard that it cracked and shattered.”
He got a one-day suspension that he served Jan. 5. The next day, his mother dropped him off at school but didn’t stay.
At lunchtime, after 11:15 a.m., Zwerner went to Ebony Parker, saying the 6-year-old was “in a violent mood,” the lawsuit said. The boy also “threatened to beat up a kindergartner during lunchtime, and angrily stared down a security officer.”
‘Downplaying concerns’
But Parker “had no response ... refusing even to look up at (Zwerner) when she expressed her concerns,” the lawsuit asserts. That lack of response “was consistent” with Parker’s reputation, the complaint adds.
“She was well known ... to ignore and downplay concerns expressed by teachers,” the complaint says. Students who were sent to see her after unruly behavior would often “return to the classroom bragging about candy they had received.”
“Assistant Principal Parker’s administrative style was to permit students to engage in dangerous and disruptive conduct and impose no consequence for breaking the rules, thereby placing all persons in the vicinity of the school and in the community at risk,” the complaint says.
Attempts to reach Parker — who began with the school district in 2008 and became Richneck’s assistant principal in 2021 — have been unsuccessful in recent months. She resigned from the school division in late January.
At 11:45 a.m. on the day of the shooting, two students told a Richneck reading specialist that the boy had a gun in his backpack, the complaint says. She confronted the boy about it, and he denied that he had a weapon — but said he was mad that other students were picking on a classmate.
After recess began at 12:30 p.m., Zwerner told the reading specialist and another teacher that she had seen the 6-year-old taking something out of his backpack in the classroom, fearing it was a gun.
Zwerner then watched the boy and one of his classmates “repeatedly going behind a rock-climbing wall at the playground.” The reading specialist took it upon herself to search the boy’s pack — still in the classroom — but didn’t find a weapon.
The reading specialist then went to Parker’s office, relayed what had transpired, and said the boy might have a gun. But the complaint says Parker took no action, saying the boy’s pockets “were too small” to hold a gun.
Student says he was shown gun
When recess ended at 1 p.m., the other first grade teacher pulled aside the boy who had been with the 6-year-old at recess. That student was “upset and crying,” and at first resisted saying anything, telling the teacher the boy had threatened to harm him if he did.
But that student soon revealed that the 6-year-old showed him the gun during recess.
“At that point ... you have a ticking time bomb in the school, and the school failed to do anything,” Breit said in an interview on NBC’s “Today” show Monday morning.
That teacher called the school office, telling the man who picked up the phone — a Richneck music teacher — what happened. The music teacher approached Parker, but she told him the boy’s backpack had already been searched, the complaint said.
When the music teacher went back to Parker’s office a second time on the other teacher’s insistence, a Richneck guidance counselor was already there, seeking permission to search the boy.
But Parker wouldn’t allow it. “Assistant Principal Parker forbade (the guidance counselor) from doing so and stated that (the boy’s) mother would be arriving soon to pick him up,” the lawsuit says.
Less than an hour later, the boy pulled the gun out of his hoodie pocket during class and opened fire on Zwerner. Police Chief Steve Drew has said the handgun — a Taurus 9mm — was legally purchased by the boy’s mother and that the first grader brought it to school that day in his backpack.
A ‘preventable’ shooting
If Parker had reported the matter to the police when she was first told the boy might have a gun, the shooting would have been avoided, the complaint said.
Zwerner was released from Riverside Regional Medical Center about 10 days after the shooting.
“Abby ... is really pushing through,” Toscano told Guthrie on the “Today” show in New York. “Every day is different and challenging, and she’s going to be dealing with this for her entire life — the physical, the emotional trauma.”
But, Toscano said, “we’re going to hold those accountable for what happened to her, which was completely preventable.” The complaint seeks a jury trial and asks for $40 million in damages.
Michelle Price, a spokeswoman for the School Board, said the school division was closed this week and hasn’t yet been served.
“Our thoughts and prayers remain with Abby Zwerner and her ongoing recovery,” Price said. “As a school community, we continue to recover and support one another.”
“The safety and well-being of our staff and students is our most important priority,” she added. “The School Board and the school division’s leadership team will continue to do whatever it takes to ensure a safe and secure teaching and learning environment across all our schools.”
George Parker, fired as superintendent Jan. 26, said he “continues to wish Ms. Zwerner well and the best of health,” and hopes the lawsuit will be resolved in a timely way.
“I served diligently for five years, to the best of my ability,” he said. “I wish both Newport News Public Schools and Ms. Zwerner well as we resolve this matter — and I wish the student well, as well. I hope that everyone can continue to move forward and make sure accountability is put in the right place.”
Foster-Newton is no longer Richneck’s principal, but is still working for the school division. Her attorney said at a news conference in February that Foster-Newton was never told about the concerns that the boy had a gun on him that day.
Worker’s comp defense expected
Toscano said she expects attorneys for the School Board will seek to have the lawsuit tossed on the grounds that Zwerner is limited to a worker’s compensation claim. But Toscano contends getting shot in the classroom isn’t an expected hazard of the job.
“The risk of being shot with a firearm ... was not a rational consequence of risks associated with her employment as a teacher of first-grade students,” the complaint says.
The boy is being treated at Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters in Norfolk.
The boy’s mother’s lawyer, James Ellenson, released a statement on behalf of the 6-year-old’s family, saying the lawsuit’s allegations “should be taken with a large grain of salt.” “We of course continue to pray for Ms. Zwerner’s complete recovery,” he said, declining further comment because of the pending criminal investigation.
Police detectives have turned the case over to Newport News prosecutors to decide on criminal charges. While has said the 6-year-old is too young to charge, prosecutors say they’re still deciding whether to charge others.
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