A teacher in Virginia has files a $40 million lawsuit after her student shot her

The First-Grade Virginia Teacher who was Shooted and Serendipitously wounded by a 6-year-old Student in a Newport News Elementary School

RICHMOND, Va. — A first-grade Virginia teacher who was shot and seriously wounded by her 6-year-old student filed a lawsuit Monday seeking $40 million in damages from school officials, accusing them of gross negligence for allegedly ignoring multiple warnings on the day of the shooting that the boy had a gun and was in a “violent mood.”

A teacher at a Newport News, Virginia elementary school was wounded in the hand and chest while sitting at a reading table. She spent nearly two weeks in the hospital and has had four surgeries since the shooting.

The shooting shocked the military shipbuilding community and many questioned how a child so young could get access to a gun and shoot his teacher.

The Newport News School Board and several school district officials are named in the lawsuit.

No one, including the boy, has been charged in the shooting. The assistant principal resigned and the school board voted to fire the administrator. The principal was reassigned to another job within the school district. The board voted to have clear backpacks for all students and to have metal detectors in every school.

“All Defendants knew that John Doe attacked students and teachers alike, and his motivation to injure was directed toward anyone in his path, both in and out of school, and was not limited to teachers while at the school,” the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit claims that teachers’ concerns were brought to the attention of the Richneck Elementary School administration and the concerns were always dismissed. He would return to class soon after he left the office with a piece of candy, according to the lawsuit.

The boy’s parents did not agree for him to be put in special education classes where he would be with other students with behavioral issues, the lawsuit states.

Zwerner suffered permanent bodily injuries, physical pain, mental anguish, lost earnings and other damages, the lawsuit states. It seeks $40 million in compensatory damages.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/04/03/1167708211/virginia-teacher-abby-zwerner-richneck-newport-news-lawsuit

A civil settlement agreement between the family of a fatally shot 18-year-old woman and a Millikan High School safety officer in Long Beach

Last month, Newport News prosecutor Howard Gwynn said his office will not criminally charge the boy because he wouldn’t understand the legal system and what a charge means. Gwynn has yet to decide if any adults will be charged.

The boy used his mother’s gun, which police said was purchased legally. An attorney for the boy’s family has said that the firearm was secured on a closet shelf and had a lock on it.

The family of an 18-year-old woman who was fatally shot by a California school safety officer in 2021 reached a $13 million settlement agreement with the Long Beach Unified School District in their civil case, family attorneys said in a news conference Tuesday.

Manuela “Mona” Rodriguez was shot by a Millikan High School safety officer on September 27, 2021, after a physical altercation involving Rodriguez and a 15-year-old girl on the street, Long Beach police previously said. Rodriguez was in the front seat of the car, when the school safety officer shot at the car as it accelerated, hitting him.

“The school district and its insurance carriers have been in negotiations on a settlement, but because we have not seen or ratified an agreement, we cannot discuss the details,” the school district said. There is no admission of liability on the part of the district in settlements like these.

Lawsuits against a New York City Sheriff’s Attorney for a Traffic-Violation Resulting in the Incrimination of a Minor

I don’t know how to move on with my life without my baby girl. She meant everything to me,” Manuela Sahagun said. All that I want is justice for my baby girl.

He was fired by the Long Beach board of education days after the shooting for violating its use of force policy, which instructs its safety officers not to shoot at a fleeing person, moving vehicle or through a vehicle window unless there is reason to believe that the person is a danger to himself or others

In a statement to CNN, Gonzalez’s attorney Michael D. Schwartz said, “What factors a municipality and their insurance carrier may consider in deciding to settle a civil law suit are rarely if ever related to whether the prosecution can prove in court that a crime was actually committed by my client.”

Past history shows that the outcomes of these cases, based on the evidence presented in court, are rarely similar to what appears in the media. Cases should be tried in a courtroom and not in the opinion of the public.