NORFOLK, Va. — The Virginia school district where a 6-year-old boy shot his teacher argues that his injuries fall under the state’s workers’ compensation law and cannot be addressed through its $40 million lawsuit, according to court documents filed Wednesday.

Abigail Zwerner was “clearly injured while on the job, at her workplace, by a student in a classroom,” the Newport News School Board stated in response to her lawsuit, which it wants dismissed.

The school board also rejected Zwerner’s claim that he could reasonably be expected to work with young children who do not pose any danger, pointing to numerous incidents of violence against teachers across the US and in Newport News.

«While in an ideal world, young children would not pose any danger to others, including their teachers, this is sadly not the reality,» the presentation states.

Zwerner, 25, was shot in the hand and chest on January 6 while sitting at a reading table in her first-grade classroom at Richneck Elementary. She spent nearly two weeks in the hospital, had four surgeries, and then told NBC that sometimes she «can’t get out of bed.»

The boy shot Zwerner with his mother’s gun. And while the boy will not be prosecuted, his mother was charged with gross negligence and reckless storage of a firearm.

Zwerner was approved for workers’ compensation, which covers injuries «without having to prove negligence,» the school board said Wednesday. Provides up to 500 weeks of compensation and lifetime medical care for injuries.

But Zwerner has refused to accept it, the board said. She filed the lawsuit for her in early April.

The school board’s response to Zwerner’s lawsuit is the latest fallout from the shooting, which sent shock waves through Newport Newsa shipbuilding town of about 185,000 people near the Chesapeake Bay.

Zwerner accuses school officials of gross negligence and ignoring multiple warnings on the day of the shooting.

Zwerner’s lawyers say school officials knew the boy «had a history of random violence» at school and at home, including an episode the previous year when he «choked and strangled» his kindergarten teacher.

School officials sent the boy to another school but allowed him to return to first grade in the fall of 2022, Zwerner’s lawsuit says. He said he was placed on a modified schedule “because he was chasing students around the playground with a belt in an effort to spank them” and was cursing the staff and teachers.

«Teachers’ concerns about John Doe’s behavior (were) regularly brought to the attention of Richneck Elementary School administration, and the concerns were consistently dismissed,» the lawsuit states.

In its filing on Wednesday, the school board rejected Zwerner’s claims that the girl should not have remained in her class.

The boy was in the process of being evaluated and treated for possible ADHD. leading to inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivityargued the school board.

The evaluation for possible attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder was not complete, the board said. And even if he had been found to need additional services, state and federal laws would have been applied «for the purpose of keeping those children in the classroom with their peers when possible.»

Zwerner’s lawsuit outlines a series of warnings school employees gave administrators in the hours leading up to the shooting, beginning with Zwerner, who told an assistant principal that the boy «was in a violent mood,» had threatened to hit a kindergartner and stared at a security guard. officer in the dining room.

Other warnings included those of two students, who told a reading specialist that the boy had a gun in his backpack, the lawsuit says.

Zwerner said she saw the boy take something out of his backpack and put it in the pocket of his sweatshirt, the lawsuit says. A search of his backpack turned up no weapons. And the deputy principal said the boy’s «pockets were too small to hold a gun and did nothing,» Zwerner’s lawsuit says.

In its Wednesday filing, the school board argues that Zwerner’s lawsuit «strategically focuses on the use of a handgun rather than some other weapon with less perceived conspicuousness and shock value.»

«If the allegations in the complaint substitute ‘gun’ for ‘sharp scissors’ and John Doe stabs (Zwerner) in the neck in the classroom, there would be no question that the injury would fall under workers’ compensation,» argues the school board. .

The lawsuit names as defendants the Newport News School Board, former Superintendent George Parker III, former Richneck Principal Briana Foster-Newton, and former Richneck Assistant Principal Ebony Parker.

Wednesday’s presentation was on behalf of the board, George Parker and Foster-Newtown by attorney Anne C. Lahren of the Pender & Coward law firm.

Ebony Parker was not represented in the filing and retained separate counsel, whose response to Zwerner’s lawsuit is not yet due.