NEWPORT NEWS — The Newport News Education Association President condemned the premise of the school division’s motion to dismiss Abigail Zwerner’s pending $40 million lawsuit.
The motion was filed last week by attorneys representing the School Board and argues that Zwerner, who was shot in her classroom at Richneck Elementary in January by a 6-year-old student, is only entitled to file a worker’s compensation claim because the injury she sustained from the shooting is a “workplace injury,” and that the shooting was a hazard of the job.
From previous articles, the student should never have even been allowed to be in a position to shoot her (not that any student should, but this student was flying red flags and the district knew and ignored them).
Also, if I recall my understanding of workers comp law, if you have a “workplace injury” you cannot legally sue the district. If she is allowed to sue, which she should be able to, she can claim that they were negligent. I’d imagine some sort of liability insurance would kick in. If it falls under workplace injury, she can only ask for them to cover her medical bills, and they can also force her to start going to their shitty workman’s comp doctors for any further care she needs.