Abigail Zwerner, a former teacher at Richneck Elementary School in Newport, Virginia, experienced a life-changing moment on January 6, 2023, when a child shot her in the hand and upper chest.

More than two years after that moment, a Virginia jury ruled that the assistant principal acted with gross negligence and awarded the teacher $10 million in compensation.

damages, with interest starting June 1, 2024. Zwerner accused the former administrator in a lawsuit of ignoring repeated warnings that the child had a gun. Minutes later, she was shot while sitting at a reading table in her first-grade classroom. She had sought $40 million. The lawsuit alleged that Parker had a duty to protect Zwerner and others after being informed of the gun's presence. Zwerner's lawyers claimed that Parker took no action in the hours leading up to the shooting, even though several school staff members had informed him that the student was carrying a gun in his backpack. Furthermore, the shooting occurred on the first day after the student returned from a suspension for hitting Zwerner's phone two days prior. Zwerner testified that he learned of the gun's existence before recess from a reading teacher who had been alerted by students. The shooting occurred a few hours later. Despite his injuries, Zwerner managed to quickly evacuate his students from the classroom. He eventually collapsed in the school office. Zwerner spent nearly two weeks in the hospital, required six surgeries, and does not have full mobility in his left hand. A bullet passed very close to his heart and remains lodged in his chest. Meanwhile, in a rare ruling, the student's mother was sentenced to nearly four years in prison for gross child neglect and federal gun possession charges. Her son told authorities he obtained his mother's gun by climbing onto a drawer to reach the top of the dresser, where the weapon was in her purse. Following the incident, the school superintendent was fired and the assistant principal resigned. Since then, Richneck Elementary School has installed full-time security and metal detectors.