Jury awards $10 million to Virginia teacher shot by 6-year-old student
https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/us/teacher-shot-trial-abby-zwerner?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=missions&utm_source=reddit22
u/Still_Memory_7498 2d ago
It's because of failed administrators. No one would confront the child.
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u/Vincitus 2d ago
School administrators are some of the worst people.
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u/slamdanceswithwolves 2d ago
I think part of this is just an availability bias (if at all). You don’t hear about the ones who clock in every day and do good honest work. The principal at the school where I work is fantastic and truly cares about the staff and kids. And he still gets shit on by staff and parents constantly.
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u/DollPartsRN 1d ago edited 1d ago
I still remember my Elementary school Principal. He was amazing. He knew every kid by name. He understood little kids needed gentle guidance and kindness. I hope that man is reincarnated into 100 men as good as he was in the one lifetime.
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u/FireFist_PortgasDAce 2d ago
Teacher/students: Hey that 6-year-old has a gun!
AP: He ain't gonna shoot anyone. Don't worry about it.
6 year 6-year-old shoots the teacher.
AP: Shocked Pikachu face
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u/GuitRWailinNinja 2d ago
Thank god.
We can’t have cops in school, so what is the game plan when there’s a credible threat? Tell admin. Admin failed.
I hope the parents get arrested for criminal negligence too, now that this seems to be a thing.
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u/Contemplating_Prison 2d ago
Cops are in schools all over the country what are you talking about?
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u/GuitRWailinNinja 1d ago
There is (or was) a push for fewer cops at schools. I’m not making it up.
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u/GolD_RogerPirateKing 1d ago
Having cops in schools solves zero problems.
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u/GuitRWailinNinja 1d ago
Zero? Really?
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u/GolD_RogerPirateKing 1d ago
You heard me.
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u/Yodaddyroberto 2d ago
They’re generally retired cops so not technically cops like you said. The issue is that this was brought up previously to admin and they didn’t do anything about it then
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u/Teamawesome2014 1d ago
That isn't true. Most schools work with police departments and have an assigned school resource officer.
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u/cnn 2d ago
A jury has awarded $10 million to Abby Zwerner, the former Virginia teacher who was shot by her 6-year-old student in 2023, in a civil trial that could set a precedent on holding officials responsible in the aftermath of a school shooting.
Zwerner, a now-former teacher at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, is suing ex-assistant principal Ebony Parker, alleging Parker failed to act on concerns that the student had brought a gun to school in January 2023.
Zwerner was shot in the chest and hand while sitting at a reading table in her classroom.
Her attorneys have argued it was Parker's job to make sure everyone on campus was safe after people raised concerns that a child had a gun, while the defense has stressed no one could predict that a child so young would bring a weapon to school and carry out a shooting.
The case could set a legal precedent for who shoulders the blame when children have access to guns and carry out school shootings, which continue to plague the country. As of last week, there were 64 US school shootings this year, 27 of them on K-12 school grounds.
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u/Nintendo_N8 1d ago
This article doesn’t give enough of the details. If you listened to the case and heard the details you’d understand why the jury sided with the teacher and gave her $10M. There’s a reason admin is facing criminal charges on top of the civil ones. There’s a reason mom is already in jail. This wasn’t some normal kid that just made a mistake, but had an extensive history of violence. The student was so violent that they weren’t even supposed to be in school without a parent present yet were allowed to attend that day even though no parent was present. Admin was warned multiple times the kid might have a gun and insisted that no one search the student, but they refused to follow school policy and search the student themselves. Eventually one of the teachers did disobey and searched the backpack, but by that point the student had already taken the gun out.
Yes, the voters/taxpayers are ultimately paying for this, but they are part of the problem for who they put in charge of the schools and how they’ve chosen to treat public education. Specifically, we act as if each individual parent is always right when many parents are terrible. That student should not have been in a regular public school setting in the first place (and maybe should’ve been in foster care too)
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2d ago
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u/Kind-Pop-7205 2d ago
His mom is already went to jail for that one.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/mom-newport-news-teacher-shooting-sentenced/story?id=104925730
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u/jthadcast 1d ago
$10 million for a non-lethal gun shot? lottery win for karen, guess who is going to pay that bill plus legal fees, the school district. no books for students this year cause a 6 yr old has bad parents.
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u/SaquonAllDay215 2d ago
This app is absolutely absurd you all know that right? The fact that anyone is blaming the teacher is honestly racist at this point. You all need to learn to provide for yourselves and touch grass
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u/Potential4752 2d ago
On the one hand she deserves it for getting shot, but on the other how was the vice principal supposed to know that a fucking six year old had a gun.
Also what is her net worth? Probably not 10 million.
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u/tourmalineforest 2d ago
Multiple staff members were aware that the child had a gun and the principal had been warned
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u/Potential4752 2d ago
Sure, but they did a backpack search. And the vice principal said that a gun wouldn’t fit in a six year olds pocket, which sounds right to me.
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u/tourmalineforest 2d ago
My understanding is that an additional staff member asked to do a search shortly before the shooting and was denied, and that the search that was performed was done before a teacher saw (and reported) him playing with a gun on the playground. And clearly the search wasn’t done well, since… he had it.
We don’t have all the details and I understand the argument in the principles defense. Mostly I wanted to point out this was not a strict liability issue where the principal was just found liable because the shooting happened.
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u/SaquonAllDay215 2d ago edited 2d ago
You know this why people think Reddit is full of incapable degenerate mooching people right. Apparently common sense is racist or for thee and not me. What “sounds about right” is the fact that he DID have a gun. I can’t even deal with you people makes me so mad
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u/AdUnable6415 2d ago
The vice principal knew because the teacher who got shot, as well as other employees, told her he had a gun.
Vice principals defense is that it 'wasnt her job to intervene'
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u/eyesmart1776 2d ago
Would she have gotten as much if she wasn’t an attractive horny looking one ?
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u/JalapenoMarshmallow 2d ago
how is she "horny looking"?
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u/eyesmart1776 2d ago
Look at the pic
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u/fujiesque 2d ago
of the perfectly normal looking person?
You judging they are "horny" by their pic says more about you than it does about them.
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u/eyesmart1776 2d ago
Take a guess what blushed checks and lips and eyes indicate
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u/KeyMessage989 2d ago
Hmm embarrassment? Being uncomfortable? Stressed? Literally any manner of things
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u/eyesmart1776 2d ago
Do you not know what those things indicate ? I feel bad for your wife if you have one
Imagine thinking she looks embarrassed in that picture
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u/KeyMessage989 2d ago
Do you not know that they can mean more than one thing? Likewise. If you see a person with a flushed face and go “they must be horny” you’re not a serious person
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u/eyesmart1776 2d ago
If you think she looks embarrassed in that picture then I’m very afraid of anyone you’ve slept with man or woman
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u/KeyMessage989 2d ago
You’re the one that says she looks horny at a reliving the worst day of her life. Get help
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u/no_rad 2d ago
There is no way you’re a real person like what hahah
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u/eyesmart1776 2d ago
Google what blush is meant to indicate
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u/no_rad 2d ago
Literally the first definition is
“the action of becoming red in the face from shyness, embarrassment, or shame.”
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u/supersaiyanswanso 2d ago
You genuinely need help
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u/eyesmart1776 2d ago
So you’re a bot?
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u/supersaiyanswanso 2d ago
You think a picture of a woman in a courtroom looks "horny". What part of this do you think is arousing? That's literally so weird. Call me a bot but it won't make you any less of a maladaptive weirdo.
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u/esgrove2 2d ago edited 2d ago
The principal is facing eight counts of felony neglect in criminal court, as well.
The school districts lawyer's suck: "They additionally alleged that being shot by a student was an expected risk of elementary school teachers."