School Staff Said a Boy, 6, Had a Gun. They Claim Asst. Principal Did Nothing, and Teacher Paid the Price By Liam Quinn

A Virginia teacher who was shot by a 6-year-old student in 2023 is suing the school’s assistant principal, claiming she failed to prevent the incident.

Abby Zwerner was in her classroom at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Va., in January 2023 when she was shot by the 6-year-old, PEOPLE previously reported.

The trial for Zwerner’s $40 million lawsuit began Monday, Oct. 24, The Virginian-Pilot reported.

The lawsuit, previously obtained by PEOPLE, names former school assistant principal Ebony Parker as a defendant and accuses her of failing to act on multiple reports that the student had a gun.

The suit also states that Zwerner suffers from “physical pain and mental anguish.”

“…Abby was shot by a six-year-old student, and she will never be the same,” Zwerner’s attorney, Diane Toscano, said in a statement at the time. “She has endured four surgeries and still has a bullet lodged inside her.”

Four different people came forward with concerns to Parker about the student on the day of the shooting, the lawsuit alleges.

During opening statements, Toscano claimed that Parker did not act on her authority to search the student or remove him from school, the Associated Press reported.

The AP further reported that the lawsuit initially listed other defendants, but Parker is now the sole defendant.

“No one could have imagined that a 6-year old, first-grade student would bring a firearm into a school,” Parker’s attorney, Daniel Hogan, said in his opening statements, according to the AP. “You will be able to judge for yourself whether or not this was foreseeable. That’s the heart of this case.”

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Hogan also reportedly mentioned “hindsight bias” in his statements and said it was unfair to judge his client’s decisions based on “stuff that came up after the fact,” per the AP.

Parker is also facing child abuse charges connected to the incident, according to Virginia court records.

The child’s mother was previously sentenced to nearly four years in prison on child neglect charges and federal gun charges, according to the AP, ABC News and The Virginian-Pilot.