Trial Begins For Former VA Principal After 6-Year-Old Shot Teacher

NEWPORT NEWS, VA — A criminal trial is underway this week for the former assistant principal of the Virginia elementary school where a 6-year-old boy brought a loaded gun to school and used it to shoot his teacher.

Jury selection began Monday in the trial of Ebony Parker, who is charged with eight counts of felony child neglect, one for each of the bullets in the gun used in the January 2023 shooting at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News.

Each count carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison upon conviction.

Prosecutors say Parker ignored warnings that the boy had a gun before he used it to shoot first-grade teacher Abigail Zwerner as she sat at a reading table in her classroom.

The charges also allege that Parker “did commit a willful act or omission in the care of such students, in a manner so gross, wanton and culpable as to show a reckless disregard for human life,” according to court documents.

In a civil trial last year, Parker's attorneys argued that the shooting was “unforeseeable.” They argued Parker did not have a legal duty to protect Zwerner and told the jury in that case "the law requires you to examine people’s decisions at the time they make them.”

Criminal charges against school officials after a school shooting are quite rare, experts say. The shooting sent shock waves through this military shipbuilding community and the country at large, with many wondering how a child so young could gain access to a gun and shoot his teacher.

In November, a jury awarded Zwerner $10 million after she filed a lawsuit against Parker. Zwerner, who is no longer a teacher, initially sued Parker for $40 million, alleging the administrator ignored multiple warnings that the boy had a gun and posed a threat.

Parker was the only defendant in the lawsuit. A judge previously dismissed the Newport News City Public Schools superintendent and the Richneck Elementary School principal as defendants.

In the lawsuit against Parker, Zwerner 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."

Zwerner also said 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 and "chased students around the playground with a belt in an effort to whip them with it."

The boy was transferred out of the school and placed in a different school in the district, but was allowed to return the following year, according to the complaint.

Zwerner is scheduled to testify in the criminal case, according to court records.

The student’s mother was sentenced to nearly four years in prison for felony child neglect and federal weapons charges. Her son told authorities he climbed to the top of a dresser to retrieve the gun from his mother's purse.'

The Associated Press contributed reporting.

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