NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (WAVY) — Seven jurors and two alternates were selected late Monday to hear the evidence in the $40 million civil trial against a former assistant principal in the shooting of a teacher by her student.

Testimony will begin Tuesday morning in the trial focused on the Jan. 6, 2023 shooting at Richneck Elementary School, in which a 6-year-old student shot his teacher, Abigail Zwerner, while in the classroom. She is suing Ebony Parker for gross negligence, alleging that Parker ignored warnings from Zwerner and others that the child had a gun that day.

Court TV is live streaming the civil trial.

Prospective jurors were quizzed by Zwerner’s attorney Kevin Biniazan and Parker’s attorney, Sandra Douglas. Several were eliminated from consideration because they had formed opinions based on widespread media coverage that they claimed they could not set aside when considering the evidence.

Others were eliminated when they said they had teachers in their families and would be biased toward Zwerner, or expressed reluctance that they could return a verdict worth $40 million if Zwerner’s attorneys proved their case. “That’s a whole lot of money,” one man said right before Judge Matthew Hoffman excused him.

In order to prove their case, Zwerner’s attorneys, including Biniazan, Diane Toscano and Jeffrey Breit, need to show Parker’s actions were a proximate cause of the shooting. In other words, they don’t have to prove it was the sole cause, just that her alleged gross negligence contributed to the circumstances that led to the shooting.

The burden of proof is lighter than it would be in a criminal trial. It’s based on preponderance of the evidence — “more likely than not” — and not the more rigorous criminal standard of beyond a reasonable doubt.

According to Zwerner’s attorneys, testimony will begin Tuesday with fact witnesses, including school staffers and first responders. The first-grader used a 9 mm pistol to shoot Zwerner in the hand, and the bullet passed through and struck her in the chest. The boy’s mother, Deja Taylor, was convicted on state and federal charges in the case for leaving the loaded gun accessible to the child and lying on a federal gun purchase form about whether she smoked marijuana.

Recently, on Oct. 16, Zwerner’s legal team met in court for pretrial motions, which helped to determine which evidence the jury will be able to hear.

Some of the topics discussed during the pretrial included whether or not child psychologists could testify, and if a text exchange between Zwerner and her boyfriend, which included crude language from Zwerner’s boyfriend to describe Parker, would be able to be used in court.

During the pretrial motion, the judge stated that some decisions will have to be made during the trial, with Zwerner’s attorney Kevin Biniazan saying, “it’s kind of a case-by-case determination.”

Zwerner’s lawsuit alleges that Parker should face consequences as a result of her “grossly negligent dereliction of duty that resulted in Abby’s life being forever altered.”

Parker is also facing a criminal trial in connection with the shooting at Richneck Elementary School, in which she faces eight counts of felony child abuse. The criminal trial is set to start Nov. 17.