OAN Staff Katherine Mosack and Brooke Mallory
2:13 PM – Thursday, October 30, 2025
Abigail Zwerner, a Virginia teacher who was shot in the hand and chest by a 6-year-old student in 2023, testified this week in her $40 million negligence lawsuit against former Richneck Elementary assistant principal Ebony Parker.
In January 2023, Abigail Zwerner, then 25, taught first grade at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia, when a 6-year-old male student brandished a firearm from his backpack.
The student abruptly fired at the teacher, with the bullet passing through her hand and into her chest — where it remains to this day — due to the possible risks involved in removing it.
Months later, Zwerner filed a $40 million lawsuit against the assistant principal, Parker, who has since resigned from the school.
The first-grade teacher argues that the assistant principal failed to act despite staff giving her multiple warnings about the student’s gun‑possession — not acting on them when she was warned that the child had brought a gun to school.
Another first-grade teacher, Jennifer West, also claimed that she reported to the school administration and another counselor that one of her students also saw the boy with a gun and bullet after recess. The counselor, Rolonzo Rawles, then requested permission from Parker to search the boy, but the assistant principal told him the search would have to wait until the child’s mother arrived.
In addition, Amy Kovac, a reading specialist at the school, told jurors that she overheard Zwerner in Parker’s office warning that the boy had threatened another student and was behaving aggressively toward a security officer at lunch. However, Parker didn’t even look up at the teacher during the conversation, seemingly ignoring her, Kovac added.
Zwerner’s lawsuit accuses Parker of negligence “so gross, wanton, and culpable as to show a reckless disregard for human life.” It also notes that she told the assistant principal that the 6-year-old was in a “violent mood” at the time, but Parker still didn’t “even look up,” consistent with Kovac’s recollection.
The complaint further emphasizes that, had Parker acted on clear signs that the student posed a threat, the subsequent attack could have been prevented.
“I thought I was dying, I thought I had died,” Zwerner testified on Thursday. “I thought I was on my way to heaven or in heaven, but then it all got black.”
Zwerner underwent multiple surgeries after being rushed to the hospital from the school. She testified that she still struggles with simple tasks like opening potato chip bags and water bottles due to her injured hand.
Meanwhile, during trial, Parker’s attorney tried to suggest that Zwerner could have done more about the boy’s gun, prompting Zwerner to reply that she “didn’t think twice,” as she felt safe that a school superior in charge of her was made aware of the threat.
“It was my understanding that the administration wouldn’t think twice as well when alerted about a potential gun in school,” she said.
“No one could have imagined that a 6-year-old first grade student would bring a firearm to an elementary school,” said Daniel Hogan, Parker’s attorney. “Is it really foreseeable that a 6-year-old child would shoot their own teacher? Was that reasonably foreseeable? Was Dr. Parker indifferent? Did she fail to exercise at least some degree of care, even if it didn’t work out? Did Abby Zwerner fail to take steps for her own safety?”
“Who would think a 6-year-old is going to bring a gun to school and shoot their teacher?” Zwerner’s lawyer Diane Toscano said in her opening statements on Tuesday. “Parker’s job is to believe that is possible.”
A GoFundMe was set up by Hannah Zwerner, the teacher’s twin sister, who also testified on Thursday.
“If you’re looking for ways to help, I am creating this fund to help aid in Abby’s healing. Its purpose is to cover future living expenses as Abby recovers from this tragedy,” she wrote on the GoFundMe page.
This is only the civil trial Parker faces, but a criminal trial will follow. She has been indicted on eight felony counts of child neglect in connection to the incident — punishable by five years in prison.
The now-9-year-old boy has not been charged and is living with family while attending another school. At the time, the child reportedly found the gun in his mother’s purse, telling a counselor who assessed him, “I shot that (expletive) dead” and “I got my mom’s gun last night,” according to court documents.
His mother, Deja Taylor, previously pleaded guilty and is still in prison for child neglect. Before pleading guilty, Taylor had lied on the ATF form she completed when purchasing her firearm, claiming she “was not an unlawful user of marijuana or other controlled substances,” despite police discovering an ounce of marijuana in her bedroom and proof of frequent drug use in her phone messaging history.
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