Abby Zwerner, the Virginia teacher who was shot multiple times by her six-year-old student in 2023, testified on Tuesday at the trial of the school principal who was in charge at the time of the traumatic incident.
Prosecutors allege that Ebony Parker, the former assistant principal at Richneck Elementary School, failed to take any action to protect Zwerner or students after being warned multiple times about the six-year-old's violent and aggressive behavior toward others.
'There was only one person in the school that day that had both the authority to act and the knowledge of the ongoing crisis, and that person you will see was Dr. Parker,' Assistant Commonwealth Attorney Josh Jenkins said in court.
Parker has been charged with eight counts of felony child abuse and disregard for life. This equates to each of the eight bullets the child fired in the classroom on January 6, 2023.
The boy will not face criminal prosecution, but his mother, Deja Taylor, pleaded guilty to felony child neglect and spent two years in prison. Authorities said the boy took the gun from Taylor's purse and snuck it into school.
Zwerner was the prosecution's first witness in Parker's trial, telling the court that the child, referred to as JT, smashed her phone two days prior to the shooting.
On January 6, Zwerner said she told Parker about the boy's 'violent mood' that day. She had also heard from Amy Kovac, the class reading specialist, that he may have had a firearm.
Zwerner testified that Kovac went to report this to Parker. Later, at recess, Zwerner said she noticed that the boy was wearing an oversized jacket and holding his hands in his pockets for the whole time.
While at recess, the boy stared down the school security officer while Zwerner talked to her, she testified.
'I witnessed the student was staring her down, very focused on her and he slowly got up from his seat and ever so slowly approached, still not breaking eye contact at the security officer and that stuck out to me as well,' she said on the stand.
When they were back in class, the boy approached her with the gun in hand, she testified. She was then shot through her hand and chest, which led to permanent physical injuries.
'I saw the student looking at me. I looked over. A gun was pointed right at me. He was holding a gun, the student. It was pointed right at me. And then I was shot,' she said.
Many of Zwerner's statements were interrupted by the defense, who claimed what she was saying amounted to hearsay. At times, the judge agreed and instructed the jury not to consider certain statements Zwerner had made, one of them involving something a teacher told her about the boy threatening to beat up another student.
Under cross-examination, defense attorney Curtis Rogers questioned Zwerner about her relative lack of action, given she had strong suspicions about the boy having a firearm.
'You could have refused to let him go to recess. You could have removed him from the presence of his other classmates, is that correct?' Rogers asked.
'In hindsight, yes I could have,' Zwerner said.
However, under school policy, only administrators and school resource officers have the power to search a student. Prosecutors said the school principal, who has not been charged, was not aware of the gun. They claim Parker was aware of the gun after multiple people told her and advised against searching the child.
Parker has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against her. Each of the eight counts is a class 6 felony punishable by up to five years in prison.
Zwerner also sued Parker in civil court, where she made similar allegations, essentially providing a preview of the main arguments and points of dissension likely to come up in the criminal trial. In November, Zwerner won a $10 million judgement against Parker, though it's unclear how much of this money will actually be paid out.
The Virginia Risk Sharing Association, an insurance pool that covers many public institutions in the state, will be responsible for paying the $10 million since the Newport News School District is a member of the organization.
University of Richmond law professor Jack Preis told NBC News in November that the insurance managers could wiggle out of paying the settlement if Parker is convicted.
'There's times in which the courts will say, "Listen, you've effectively misbehaved so much that you've lost your job, you've left your job for that moment, and therefore we're not responsible for covering anything because you essentially abdicated your role,"' Preis said. He added that even if Parker were found guilty, the insurance pool may feel pressure to pay Zwerner anyway.
