NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (WAVY) — On the eve of the one-year mark since Abby Zwerner was shot inside her first-grade classroom at Richneck Elementary School, the Newport News School Board has filed a workers compensation claim on her behalf and requested a hearing with the Workers’ Compensation Commission.
It said it is requesting that Zwerner “be awarded full benefits, including lifetime medical benefits, which she can receive immediately following such award, and maximum wages allowed under the Workers’ Compensation Act.”
In a statement from Pender & Coward, which is representing the Newport News School Board in the Zwerner litigation, it said that “there is legal authority” to allow an employer to file a claim with the Workers’ Compensation Commission for workers’ compensation on behalf of an employee.
“It has been one year tomorrow since Abigail Zwerner was shot in her classroom by a six-year-old student,” Pender & Coward said in its statement on behalf of the Newport News School Board. “She has recently given interviews expressing worry about medical expenses arising from her injuries, all of which would be covered for her lifetime by workers’ compensation benefits.
“There is a two-year statute of limitations for seeking these benefits. We do not want to see these significant benefits jeopardized by letting the deadline for filing lapse. We firmly belief that the Workers’ Compensation Commission is the correct forum to determine this case, not the Circuit Court.”
A judge ruled in November, however, that Zwerner’s $40 million lawsuit against Newport News Public Schools over claims of negligence by school administrators could proceed.
School Board lawyers had argued that Zwerner was eligible only for workers’ compensation, which provides up to nearly 10 years pay and lifetime medical care for injuries.
Zwerner, who was in the hospital for nearly two weeks and endured multiple surgeries after a bullet struck her hand and chest, has alleged that administrators ignored warnings that the boy had a gun that day and had routinely dismissed ongoing concerns about his troubling behavior.
Zwerner’s attorneys, Diane Toscano, Jeffrey Breit and Kevin Biniazan, said in their own statement that the school division is trying to force teachers to agree that they should accept violence as normal in teaching.
“”Once again, the Newport News public school system tries to force school teachers to accept violence as a normal requirement for teaching our young children,” Zwerner’s attorneys said in their statement. “They try to cloak themselves with fairness for Abby Zwerner by forcing her to accept workers’ compensation, which is nothing more than normalizing violence against teachers.
“The trial court was correct that the Newport News public school system cannot claim that a teacher being shot by her 6-year-old student is a hazard of the job. The school board is hiding behind workers’ compensation to avoid their responsibility to correct the problem. The Newport News school board continues to insult not just the public, but every hard-working teacher in Newport News.”
A tentative trial date has been scheduled for January 2025 for Zwerner’s lawsuit.
