Scapegoat Situation? Ex-Elementary School Assistant Principal Charged with Felony Child Neglect After 6-Year-Old Shoots Teacher in Virginia
A former elementary school assistant principal in Virginia faces several felony child neglect charges after being accused of failing to prevent a 6-year-old boy from shooting his first-grade teacher last year.
Authorities charged 39-year-old Ebony Parker with eight counts of felony child neglect after she allegedly showed “a reckless disregard for the human life” of students at Richneck Elementary School, according to newly unsealed court documents obtained by the Virginian-Pilot.
Each of those counts is punishable by up to five years in prison.
Those charges are connected to a shooting on January 6, 2023, in which a first-grader pulled a handgun out of his hoodie and shot his teacher, Abby Zwerner, while the two of them were sitting at a reading table. The bullet that struck Zwerner went through her left hand and into her upper chest. Zwerner survived her injuries.
The boy said he got the gun from his mother’s pocketbook that sat on top of her dresser before bringing it to school that day. His mother, 26-year-old Deja Taylor, pleaded guilty to felony child neglect in connection to the shooting and was sentenced to two years in prison.
She was also given a 21-month prison term for possessing marijuana and a gun at the same time after she lied about her drug use on a gun purchasing form and is barred from seeing her son until he turns 18.
Now, Parker faces prosecution in the shooting case. She served as Richneck’s assistant principal for about two years but resigned after the shooting.
The indictments state she was “a person responsible for the care of students under the age of 18 at Richneck Elementary School,” yet committed “a willful act or omission in the care of such students” that was “so gross, wanton, and culpable as to show a reckless disregard for human life.”
The shooting took place in front of more than a dozen first-grade students, according to police.
Zwerner filed a $40 million lawsuit against the Newport News school system, Parker, and two others that alleged Parker disregarded the warnings of multiple teachers who came directly to her and said the child had a gun.
According to her complaint, Zwerner approached Parker the morning of the shooting and told her the boy was in a “violent mood” and “threatened to beat up a kindergartner during lunchtime,” but Parker had “no response.”
As the day progressed, several teachers saw the boy pull something out of his backpack during recess. A reading specialist didn’t find a gun after searching his bag, but she went to Parker who dismissed her concern and said the boy’s pockets were “too small” to carry a firearm.
By the end of the recess period, a student told a teacher she saw the child with a gun. Another complaint was made, but Parker told a teacher the child’s bag “had already been searched” and reportedly denied a request to search the boy again.
A Norfolk attorney representing the families of seven Richneck students who also filed suit against the Newport News school division said her clients “may find comfort in knowing that the administration is being held accountable.”
“The suffering of the students of Richneck has been ignored,” Emily Brannon told the Virginian-Pilot. “These charges suggest that there is sufficient evidence that the students of Richneck were placed in peril by the very hands entrusted to protect them…I remain optimistic that our criminal justice system will provide answers to the Richneck community.”
However, some have questioned why the assistant principal is facing charges for the shooting and why more heat is not coming down on education officials/
“Scapegoat situation? The county BOE dept should be taking the heat for this. Provide schools with what they need to fight this nonsense, or pay the consequences,” one commenter wrote.
A day after news of Parker’s charges dropped, the first parents ever to be charged and convicted in a mass school shooting case were sentenced for involuntary manslaughter.
Jennifer and James Crumbley will spend between 10 to 15 years in prison for their roles in the deadly attack at Oxford High School in Michigan on November 30, 2021. Four students were killed by their son, 17-year-old Ethan, who is currently serving a life sentence for his actions.
Prosecutors argued that Ethan’s parents failed to prevent the shooting by ignoring their son’s mental health needs and purchasing the gun he used in the shooting.