Assistant Principal Charged After 6-Year-Old Shot Teacher In VA

NEWPORT NEWS, VA — An ex-assistant principal at a Virginia elementary school has been indicted in connection with the case of a 6-year-old who shot a teacher, according to reports.

A court document published by WTKR states that a special grand jury charged Ebony Parker on March 11 with reckless care for a child, a felony. Parker faces eight counts of child neglect after the shooting Jan. 6, 2023, at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, according to the Associated Press.

Each of the charges is punishable by up to five years in prison.

Parker was working the day the child fired a single shot at his teacher, Abigail Zwerner, during a reading class. Zwerner has filed a $40 million lawsuit against the Newport News school district alleging that Parker ignored several warnings that the boy had a gun in school that day.

Parker’s lawyer did not immediately respond to comment requests from The Washington Post but has denied the allegations in relation to the lawsuit.

Zwerner was seriously hurt in the shooting but has recovered.

“These charges are very serious and underscore the failure of the school district to act to prevent the tragic shooting of Abby Zwerner," Zwerner's attorneys said in a statement to WTKR. "The school board continues to deny their responsibility to Abby, and this indictment is just another brick in the wall of mounting failures and gross negligence in their case.”

Seven families of students at the school as of January had filed lawsuits against the Newport News school board and three administrators, including Parker, claiming more should have been done to prevent the child from shooting Zwerner, the Virginian-Pilot previously reported. Also named are former Superintendent George Parker III and former Richneck Principal Briana Foster-Newton, according to the Virginian-Pilot.

“For the first time in over a year, the families may find comfort in knowing that the administration is being held accountable,” attorney Emily Mapp Brannon, who is representing the families, told the Post in a statement.

Newport News police said the boy took his mother's 9mm handgun to school, pulled it from his backpack and used it to shoot Zwerner while she was teaching her first-grade class. Police Chief Steve Drew has repeatedly characterized the shooting as "intentional," saying the boy aimed at Zwerner and fired one round, striking her in the hand and chest. The shot resulted in severe injuries, including a lung collapse.

In Zwerner's lawsuit, attorneys claimed Parker chose to "breach her assumed duty" to protect Zwerner "despite multiple reports that a firearm was on school property and likely in possession of a violent individual." Attorneys for Zwerner also allege that school officials knew the boy "had a history of random violence" at school and home, including that he "strangled and choked" his kindergarten teacher.

The lawsuit also alleges that a reading specialist told Parker that the boy had told students he had a gun. Parker responded that his "pockets were too small to hold a handgun and did nothing," the lawsuit states.

Zwerner's lawsuit also names George Parker and Foster-Newton as defendants.

Since the shooting, the boy's mother — 26-year-old Deja Taylor — was sentenced to two years in prison after she pleaded guilty to felony child neglect.

Taylor’s son told authorities he got his mother’s gun by climbing onto a drawer to reach the top of a dresser, where the firearm was in his mom’s purse. Taylor initially told investigators she had secured her gun with a trigger lock, but investigators said they never found one. Taylor was also sentenced in November to 21 months in prison for using marijuana while owning a gun.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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