Trial jury in the American state Virginia on Thursday upheld $10 million in damages for a former teacher which two years ago shot by a six-year-old student. TASR informs about it according to the report of the AFP agency.
First grade teacher Abby Zwerner, 28, was fatally shot by a student at an elementary school in Newport News in January 2023. She was hospitalized for two weeks with injuries to her arm and chest. Since then, she has had six surgeries and is unable to fully use her left arm. The bullet narrowly missed the heart and remains in the body.
Zwerner filed a criminal complaint of gross negligence against Assistant Principal Ebony Parker because she said she ignored a warning that a child had brought a gun to school. She demanded 40 million dollars in damages from her. The mother of the shooting student was sentenced to four years in prison for child neglect and failure to secure a firearm. She also used marijuana while in possession of a firearm.
In the United States, accidents involving young children getting hold of their parents’ unsecured guns are fairly common. School shootings by children under the age of 10 are rare, AFP agency wrote. The database of such incidents by the American researcher David Riedman has been recording since the 1970s approx. 15 similar cases.
