The civil trial filed by former teacher Abby Zwerner against former assistant principal Ebony Parker is taking place this week. Zwerner filed the $40 million lawsuit after she was shot by a 6-year-old student and nearly killed. Evidence and testimony so far in the case confirms that Parker was warned four separate times that the 6-year-old boy might have brought a gun to school.
An education expert testified yesterday that Parker had a duty to respond to those warnings.
Ann Shufflebarger, an expert on school administration called by Zwerner’s attorneys, testified that people alerted former assistant principal Ebony Parker four times to the gun they believed the student brought in a backpack…
“There are many things that needed to be done, and none of those were done at that time.”
Shufflebarger testified that it was Parker’s job to confiscate the backpack, secure and search the student and contact law enforcement.
Not only did Parker not take these steps herself, she prevented anyone else from doing so.
A guidance counselor and administrator at the school said Parker also “forbade” teachers from searching the 6-year-old for a firearm, saying his mother would pick him up soon, the complaint says.
Parker’s defense has argued that she did nothing wrong that day, but as I argued yesterday, I think there is likely a racial issue at play in this case that no one wants to talk about. Why didn’t Parker act? I believe it’s because the child, who had been in trouble at school before including choking a teacher the previous year, was black. Parker, as a black principal, was probably concerned about the so-called school to prison pipeline. If she had searched the backpack and found a gun she would have been obligated to call the police and this incident would have followed that student for years to come. I think she was hoping to avoid all of that, essentially for equity.
Today, Zwerner took the stand to testify about her experience. She gave some pretty dramatic testimony when asked what the last thing was she remembered that day.
“I thought I was dying, I thought I had died,” Zwerner said. “I thought I was either on my way to heaven or in heaven, but then it all got black, and so I then thought I wasn’t going there, and then I, my next memory is I see two coworkers around me, and I process that I’m hurt, and they’re putting pressure on where I’m hurt.”
Here’s video of her testimony.
Virginia teacher who was shot by her 6-year-old student took the stand in her $40 million civil trial today.
First-grade teacher Abby Zwerner described in chilling detail what she remembered in the moments after the shooting.
“Obvious, I thought I was dying. I thought I had… pic.twitter.com/0ptTCFr6hV
— Overton (@overton_news) October 30, 2025
On cross-examination, Parker’s attorneys did their best to blame Zwerner for not doing enough to stop her own shooting. They are literally asking if she personally told Parker about the gun as if being told about it a 5th time would have mattered to Parker when the four previous times had not.
After describing the near-death experience, Abby Zwerner was cross examined by attorneys for Ebony Parker, who asked her whether she had taken specific actions to address the rumors that the student, identified only as “JT” in court, had a gun. https://t.co/eY8nSohmeO pic.twitter.com/85tqVsfcc4
— WTKR News 3 (@WTKR3) October 30, 2025
The defense also tried to argue that Zwerner wasn’t that seriously impacted by the shooting because she went to a concert and to cosmetology school.
The attorney presented evidence Zwerner had attended concerts since the shooting, including the Taylor Swift Eras tour.
The attorney also sought to undermine claims Zwerner is physically hindered by her wounds, asking Zwerner how she successfully attended and graduated from cosmetology school if she had physical limitations.
Zwerner was proud of graduating but was often in pain, she said. She has yet to get a job in cosmetology and can’t work in the field until after her hand heals from her latest surgery, she said.
I get that this is the defense’s job but it seems wrong that any efforts to move forward with her left are essentially being framed as proof that she’s not telling the truth about the impact of being shot. Zwerner spent two weeks in the hospital. She has had multiple hand surgeries and the bullet is still lodged next to her spine. She left teaching and has no plans to ever return to a classroom. The idea that she’s overselling the impact of this because she went to a concert seems pretty far-fetched.
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