A Virginia teacher who was seriously injured by her 6-year-old student filed a $40 million damages lawsuit on Monday from school authorities, accusing them of gross negligence.

Abby Zwerner, a first grade teacher at Newport News Elementary School, was shot in the arm and chest on January 6 while sitting at the reading table in her class. The 25-year-old teacher spent almost two weeks in the hospital and required four surgeries.

The lawsuit lists the Newport News School Board, a former superintendent, its former principal, and his former assistant principal as defendants.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with Abby,” the board said in a statement, naming the safety and well-being of staff and students as their highest priority. “The School Board will continue to do everything necessary to ensure a safe and secure teaching and learning environment in all of our schools.”

In the lawsuit, the teacher’s lawyers allege that all defendants knew the boy “had a history of abuse” at school and at home, including last year’s incident when he “strangled” a kindergarten teacher.

The school authorities took the boy and sent him to another school before the end of the year, but allowed him to return to first grade in the fall of 2022, the lawsuit says. He was placed in a modified program “because he chased students around the playground with a belt, trying to flog them” and berated staff and teachers, the report said.

Last month, Newport News District Attorney Howard Gwynn said his office would not prosecute the boy because he was too young to understand the legal system. Gwynn has not yet decided whether adults will be charged.

The boy used his mother’s gun, which police said was purchased legally. The boy’s family’s lawyer had previously said the gun was locked on a high shelf in a lockable cabinet.

Source: Associated Press.