Ignored Warning: "The Child Has a Gun"... Former Assistant Principal Ordered to Pay $10 Million to Teacher Injured in Shooting

Victory Against Assistant Principal Who Ignored Advance Warnings
Suffered Hand and Chest Injuries After Being Shot by Student

A former teacher who was injured after being shot by a 6-year-old first-grade student during class at an American elementary school will receive $10 million (approximately 14.4 billion won) in damages in a lawsuit against a school official. On November 7, Yonhap News, citing the Associated Press, reported that a jury in Newport News, Virginia, ruled that Ebony Parker, the former assistant principal of the school, must pay $10 million to Abigail Zwerner, the former teacher who suffered injuries to her hand and chest after being shot by a student in January 2023.

Richneck Elementary School in the United States where the shooting incident occurred. Photo by AP Yonhap News

Previously, Zwerner, who was a teacher at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, filed a $40 million (about 52.5 billion won) lawsuit claiming that the former assistant principal, Parker, failed to take any action despite multiple teachers warning in advance that the student had brought a gun to school, resulting in the incident. The fact that a 6-year-old elementary school student caused a shooting at school sent shockwaves throughout American society. Parker is also facing a criminal trial on eight charges, including felony child neglect, related to the shooting. The perpetrator was not punished due to their young age, but the student's mother was sentenced to approximately four years in prison and is currently serving her sentence for child neglect and firearm-related charges.

Gun Incidents Cause More Deaths Than Traffic Accidents

According to statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), traffic accidents were the leading cause of death for those aged 0 to 24 for 60 years, but since 2017, gun incidents and accidents have become the number one cause. The number of people aged 24 and under who died from gunshots was less than 7,000 just 20 years ago, but surpassed 10,000 in the 2020s. In the past decade alone, there have been about 1,000 shooting incidents on school grounds.

In particular, the elementary school shooting in Texas in 2022 reignited the nationwide debate over gun control in the United States. There continues to be strong calls to change the current law that allows anyone over the age of 18 to purchase a rifle, but regulations remain insufficient. The perpetrator of the 2022 Texas elementary school mass shooting was also an 18-year-old high school student. Additionally, in August, during a back-to-school Mass at the Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a mass shooting left two children, aged 8 and 10, dead, and injured 17 others, including 14 children and three parishioners in their 80s. The 23-year-old suspect took his own life after the attack, and police confirmed that he had legally purchased all the firearms used, including a rifle, shotgun, and handgun.

According to the "K-12 School Shooting Database," which tracks incidents where guns are fired or brandished at kindergartens, elementary, middle, and high schools in the United States, this case marks the 146th school shooting in the country this year. The nonprofit organization Gun Violence Archive (GVA) reported that as of the end of August, 9,825 people had died from gun violence in the United States this year.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.