US teacher awarded $10m in lawsuit after being shot by minor student

A former school teacher in the U.S., Abby Zwerner, had been awarded $10m in a lawsuit after surviving a gunshot by a 6-year-old student.

The 28-year-old Abby was shot in the chest in January 2023 and sustained life-threatening injuries.

A jury in the state of Virginia in the United States has awarded $10m to the former school teacher, Abby Zwerner, for surviving a gunshot by a minor student.

On Thursday, November 6, 2025, the jury sided with Abby’s claim made in a civil lawsuit that an ex-administrator at the school had ignored repeated warnings that the 6-year-old child had a gun in class.

Abby was shot as she sat at a reading table in her first-grade classroom, and the bullet fired by the six-year-old narrowly missed her heart and remained in her chest.

She spent nearly two weeks in the hospital as she required six surgeries and still does not have the full use of her left hand.

Abby later sought $40m in damages against Ebony Parker, a former assistant principal at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia.

One of her lawyers, Diane Toscano, said the verdict sent a message that what happened at the school “was wrong and is not going to be tolerated, that safety has to be the first concern at school."

Abby’s lawyers had claimed that Parker had failed to act in the hours before the shooting after several school staff members told her that the student had a gun in his backpack.

“Who would think a six-year-old would bring a gun to school and shoot their teacher?” Toscano had asked the jury earlier.

“It’s Dr Parker’s job to believe that is possible. It’s her job to investigate it and get to the very bottom of it.”

Parker did not testify in the lawsuit, and the mother of the minor student, Deja Taylor, was sentenced to 4 years in prison after being convicted of child neglect and firearm charges.

Additionally, the student was not charged with wrongdoing and is reportedly in the care of a relative and enrolled at a different school.

The child told authorities he got his mother's handgun by climbing onto a drawer to reach the top of a dresser, where the firearm was in his mother's purse.

An advocacy organisation, Newtown Action Alliance NAA that supports reforms aimed at addressing gun violence, said that the case points to the 'need for greater regulations over the storage of firearms in homes with children'.

The group said in a social media post that, "76 % of school shooters get their guns from their homes or relatives."

Cases reported conclude that accidents involving young children accessing unsecured firearms in their homes are common in the U.S. 

However, school shootings perpetrated by those under 10-year-old are rare.