NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — It’s a multi-million dollar lawsuit against Newport News school officials.
Elementary school teacher Abby Zwerner is suing for gross negligence, claiming ignored warnings about the six-year-old student who police say shot her inside a Richneck Elementary School classroom on January 6.
“Clearly the allegations contained within the complaint are shocking to anyone who reads them," 13News Now legal analyst Ed Booth said.
"“Given the age of the child and some of the history which has been included in this particular complaint.”
The six-year-old student at the center of the shooting had a history of “random violence,” according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit claims the child choked a kindergarten teacher, inappropriately touched another student and cursed at teachers.
As Newport News Commonwealth’s Attorney Howard Gwynn reviews the case, Booth said this lawsuit from Zwerner’s legal team would not interfere in any criminal investigation, and both the civil lawsuit and the potential criminal probe could run independently.
“It’s really apples and oranges." Booth said.
"Criminal cases and civil cases don’t go together, don’t have an impact on each other - with very limited exceptions. If someone makes an admission in a criminal case, that can come in in a civil case. But if you think about it, we have one set of standards in terms of burden of proof in a criminal case and another set of standards, a lower set of standards, burden of proof in a civil case. So they really are separate concepts.”
The Newport News Commonwealth’s Attorney has said the law does not support charging the six-year-old. At this time, no one else is charged in the case.
Booth said a lawsuit like this would preferably be heard by a jury, but whether it even makes it to trial is up to the plaintiff and defendants. He said in most cases, lawsuits are resolved before that point.
“As to whether or not this particular case will make it far – that’s up to the participants and the litigants to determine," Booth said.
"Certainly, most cases are resolved but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they all are. That’s why we have juries.”
Zwerner is suing several Newport News School Board administrators specifically, claiming they ignored warnings about the six-year-old student.
Booth said what’s notable about this lawsuit is that it specifically points out that Zwerner was at work when the shooting happened.
“You’ll notice in the complaint, the fact that she was at work was addressed very carefully pointing out that no one would expect to go to work as a teacher and encounter a six-year-old with a firearm," Booth said.
“Some of the allegations that could be raised due to the fact that she was at work, and that her only recovery might be through work – that’s something you might hear - are addressed in this complaint and specifically the facts that anyone could have been injured by the six-year-old, not just the teacher but students, visitors, and people in the immediate vicinity were all at risk of harm.”
The lawsuit says that if school leaders had taken the concerning reports seriously, they could have prevented the shooting.
As for the long-term implications of this lawsuit on schools, Booth said he hopes that whenever there's an allegation of a student having a gun, it's taken seriously.
“I hope that the impact would be that whenever there’s an allegation that an elementary school child, or any school aged child, has a firearm at school that that be taken seriously until it’s been confirmed definitively that there is not firearm in possession of a child at school," Booth said.
The attorney representing the boy’s family would not comment on the lawsuit.
Meanwhile, attorneys for Richneck Elementary's former principal, Brianna Foster Newton, say they’re considering a counter-lawsuit.