NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — The former teacher at Richneck Elementary School who was shot by a 6-year-old student in early 2023 can proceed with her lawsuit against the school’s former assistant principal, a judge ruled Thursday.

But Newport News Circuit Court Judge Matthew W. Hoffman tossed the claims that Abby Zwerner filed against two other defendants — Richneck’s former principal and the former Newport News schools superintendent.

The judge’s joint rulings, handed down before the close of business Thursday, greatly streamlines the case in advance of an expected jury trial this fall, putting the focus squarely on the one administrator.

The trial is now expected to center exclusively on whether former Richneck assistant principal Ebony J. Parker was “grossly negligent” on Jan. 6, 2023.

Parker is accused of failing to act when she was given warnings that the 6-year-old had a gun at school.

“The allegations (about Parker) …are sufficient” to proceed to trial, Hoffman wrote. A reasonable jury, he said, “could find that Assistant Principal Parker’s actions, or lack thereof, rose to the level of gross negligence or willful and wanton conduct.”

Although Hoffman ruled that Parker, as a government employee, is immune under the law from claims of simple negligence, he said she is not immune from a claim of “gross negligence,” which prior case law defines as “the absence of slight diligence or the want of even scant care.”

Moreover, Hoffman ruled that Zwerner’s attorneys have alleged “sufficient facts” about Parker’s “knowledge and conduct” before the shooting that could support a finding that she failed in her legal duty to protect Zwerner — though whether she actually assumed such a duty is a question for the jury.

But Hoffman tossed the claims against former Richneck Principal Briana Foster Newton and former School Superintendent George Parker III.

Foster Newton and George Parker — referred to in Hoffman’s ruling as “the remaining defendants” — were never seen as directly involved in what happened to Zwerner at Richneck that day.

George Parker, of no relation to the former assistant principal, was terminated by the Newport News School Board shortly after the 2023 shooting.

Attorneys for Zwerner, Diana Toscano and Jeffrey Breit, praised the judge’s ruling for allowing the case against Ebony Parker to “be addressed by a Newport News jury.”

“The trial judge has correctly ruled that the assistant principal must face the consequences of her grossly negligent dereliction of duty that resulted in Abby’s life being forever altered,” they wrote in a joint statement.

“We look forward to having the jury listen to the evidence and awarding appropriate damages for an incident that was avoidable and caused by the school administration’s failures on that fateful day.”

Zwerner’s lawyers were silent on the rulings dismissing the other two defendants from the case.

Anne C. Lahren, a Pender & Coward attorney whom the Newport News School Board hired to represent itself, George Parker and Foster Newton, said that “of course, we think Judge Hoffman got it correct for our clients.”

Sandra M. Douglas, a Glen Allen lawyer the board hired to represent Ebony Parker, could not immediately be reached.

In recent weeks, Zwerner’s lawyers dropped the Newport News School Board as a defendant in the case, in light of a recent Virginia Supreme Court decision that determined that boards hold wide-ranging sovereign immunity from personal injury claims.

On Jan. 6, 2023, one of Zwerner’s first-grade students pulled a gun from his front hoodie pocket during an afternoon reading class. He pointed the firearm at Zwerner, who sat at her reading table about 10 feet away, and fired a single round.

The bullet went through Zwerner’s left hand — which she held up as the boy opened fire — and struck her in the upper chest and shoulder.

She managed to shuttle about 18 students out of the classroom before seeking help. Zwerner was released from the hospital 10 days later.

The news that a 6-year-old student shot his teacher made headlines across the world.

In the $40 million lawsuit filed three months later, Zwerner asserted that Ebony Parker ignored several credible warnings that the boy had a gun.

According to the teacher’s suit, Zwerner approached Parker after 11:15 a.m. to say that the 6-year-old was “in a violent mood” and “threatened to beat up a kindergartner during lunchtime.”

But Parker “had no response … refusing even to look up at (Zwerner) when she expressed her concerns,” the complaint asserts.

Later that morning, the lawsuit says, other students reported that the boy had a gun.

After recess began at 12:30 p.m., the lawsuit contends, Zwerner told the reading specialist and another teacher that she had seen the 6-year-old taking something out of his backpack at recess and going behind a wall.

The reading specialist searched the boy’s backpack and didn’t find a gun. But when she went to Parker’s office to voice concern, the complaint says, Parker dismissed the concern, saying the boy “has little pockets” that were too small for a gun.

When recess ended, another student told his teacher the 6-year-old showed him the gun — and threatened to harm him if he told anyone. But when that was relayed back to Parker, she said that the boy’s bag had already been searched.

And when a guidance counselor asked to search the boy, Parker said no, the lawsuit said, with the administrator noting that the boy’s mother would soon be picking him up.

Last November, Hoffman separately rejected The Newport News School Board’s argument that Zwerner’s only remedy in the case was filing a workers’ compensation claim rather than a personal injury lawsuit.

Apart from the lawsuit, Ebony Parker separately faces eight counts of felony child neglect in a criminal case scheduled to go forward in November.

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