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Six Killed In Mass Shooting At A Private School In Nashville

Source: Seth Herald / Getty

Earlier this year a first-grade teacher in Newport News, Virginia was shot by a six-year-old in the classroom. Today she decided to file a lawsuit against the school administrators and the school board. The reason for the lawsuit is due to her claims that the school was aware of the student’s “history of random violence”.

Abigail Zwerner, a 25-year-old elementary school teacher says that the school’s administrators were well aware that the child was violent and had a history of violence at home. The lawsuit also stated that the school’s assistant principal, Ebony Parker, the defendant, ignored warning signs and concerns about the six-year-old having a firearm. The reports state that teachers and staff warned the assistant principal that the boy had a firearm in his backpack which he then put into the pocket of his hoodie. When told that, the assistant principal responded with, “his pockets were too small to hold a handgun”. They also did “forbade” staff from searching the boy because “his mother would be arriving soon to pick him up”.

Within an hour of this, the boy pulled the gun out of his pocket and shot Abigail Zwerner. Earlier in the day, Zwerner had warned Ebony PArker about the boy being in a “violent mood”. The lawsuit also states that within the same school year, the same student strangled and choked a teacher and also touched a female classmate inappropriately after lifting her dress.

Zwerner’s attorney went on to state that when the student was sent to the principal’s office, he returned with candy and bragged about it. The attorneys are claiming $40 million in damages from the City of Newport News School Board.