Boy who shot Virginia teacher showed violent tendencies, lawyer says

A lawyer for a Virginia teacher shot and wounded by a six-year-old in her class last month said the child had exhibited previous violent tendencies and once choked another educator until she could not breathe.

Two days before Zwerner was shot, her lawyer Diane Toscano said, the student smashed her cellphone and was given a one-day suspension. He returned to school with a 9mm handgun and fired at the 25-year-old Zwerner while the teacher sat with her class at a reading table, wounding her in the hand and abdomen.

Parker resigned from the school district last month, the local outlet WAVY News reported. It is not known if she has a lawyer.

The suit notice is addressed to George Parker III, the then superintendent of schools who was relieved by school board members of his duties effective 1 February with a reported severance payment in excess of half a million dollars. He is not related to Ebony Parker.

The choking case described by Toscano was confirmed by the teacher in an interview with the AP. She said that in 2021, the boy came up behind her as she sat in a chair in the front of the class, locked his forearms in front of her neck and pulled back and down hard. She said a teaching assistant pulled the boy off her.

The teacher requested anonymity because she feared retaliation from the school district. She said she reported the choking to school administrators, but she did not receive the kind of supportive response she had hoped for from them.

The child was removed from the school for a while, it is alleged, then was reassigned to a different class.

The boy remained in class, pulled out the gun about 45 minutes later, and shot Zwerner once, hitting her upper torso and left hand, the notice maintains.

The director of legal services for the Newport News school system, Len Wallin, told the AP by email that its insurer handles notices of litigation.

The Associated Press contributed reporting