NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — One after the other, they settled into the witness chair on Tuesday and testified they told an assistant principal at Richneck Elementary School that a 6-year-old was a threat that day.

The first-grade teacher, the guidance counselor, the music teacher and the reading specialist informed Ebony Parker that the boy might have a gun.

Hours later, the boy would shoot his first-grade teacher, Abby Zwerner, seriously injuring her. Some of those who tried to warn Parker cried on Tuesday during the first day of testimony in a $40 million civil lawsuit in Newport News Circuit Court. Zwerner is suing Parker, who resigned after the shooting.

The case hinges on the contention by Zwerner’s lawyers that Parker was grossly negligent because she had several opportunities to confisca

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