Former school official returns to court for case of 6-year-old who shot teacher

A former assistant principal is back in court Monday to face a criminal trial in connection with the 2023 shooting of a first-grade teacher by her 6-year-old student.

Ebony Parker is facing eight counts of child abuse and neglect in connection with the Jan. 6, 2023, incident in which a 6-year-old child brought a gun to Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia, and shot teacher Abigail Zwerner in the hand and chest. Parker resigned from her position after the shooting.

Last year, a jury awarded Zwerner $10 million after finding Parker liable for ignoring warning signs that the child had a weapon.

Ebony Parker, the former vice principal of Richneck Elementary, appears in court last year.Court TV

Now, Parker faces criminal charges in connection with the incident.

Parker was indicted on the eight child abuse charges in 2024, each of which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

A 31-page grand jury report alleges that Parker failed to protect the 15 children, ages 6 and 7, in Zwerner’s class. It says Zwerner was injured by the 6-year-old student despite multiple warnings from staff members and other students who believed the boy had a gun and posed an imminent threat on the day of the shooting.

Attorneys for Zwerner said that another student saw the 6-year-old take the gun out of his pocket on the playground and reported it to a teacher. When the teacher requested to search the child’s person, “the assistant principal said no.”

In 2023, the child’s mother, Deja Taylor, was sentenced to two years in prison on a state charge of felony child neglect and will begin her state sentence after she finishes serving 21 months on a related federal charge. She pleaded guilty to a charge of using marijuana while owning a gun, which is illegal under federal law, and was sentenced in November 2023.

During last year’s gross negligence trial against Parker, two Richneck teachers testified that they informed the school official that students had told them the student had a gun in his backpack.

Zwerner’s attorneys argued that there were clear school guidelines that called for Parker to take action once she was told about a possible threat. Parker’s lawyer said her client “did not have a legal duty to protect Miss Zwerner,” nor did she volunteer to protect the teacher.

This week’s trial is expected to last three days. An acquittal could help protect Zwerner’s $10 million civil award, which would be paid for by the Virginia Risk Sharing Association (VRSA), an insurance pool made up of many public bodies statewide, including the Newport News School Board. If Parker is found guilty of crimes tied to the shooting, insurers could have a strong case for not having to pay Zwerner.

If convicted, Parker could be facing up to 40 years in prison.

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