Deputy head charged over school shooting by boy, 6

A FORMER assistant principal at an elementary school who ignored warnings that a six-year-old was seen with a gun before they shot their teacher has been charged with felony child neglect.

A special grand jury found that Ebony Parker showed a reckless disregard for the lives of students at Virginia’s Richneck Elementary School on Jan 6 last year.

The 39-year-old was indicted on eight felony charges, each of which carry a maximum sentence of five years.

The teacher shot by the boy has also launched a $40 million (£31.5 million) negligence lawsuit against Ms Parker and other school officials.

Abby Zwerner accuses Ms Parker of ignoring her multiple warnings that the boy, named John Doe in the proceedings, had the gun in his possession and was in a “violent mood” that day.

The charges against Ms Parker come amid a new trend in which adults are being held accountable in cases of gun violence involving children.

The indictment against Ms Parker was revealed on the same day that two parents in Michigan were jailed for between 10 and 15 years for failing to prevent their son from carrying out the state’s deadliest ever school shooting.

James and Jennifer Crumbley, who have already been detained for two years, are the first parents to be held criminally responsible for a mass school shooting committed by their child.

In Virginia, Ms Zwerner was seriously injured when the boy shot her in afternoon class. The bullet went through her hand and hit her in the chest.

According to Newport police, the pupil who shot Ms Zwerner had taken his mother’s handgun from on top of a dresser at home and brought it to school hidden in his backpack. Ms Zwerner voiced her suspicions that the boy was carrying a gun to two members of staff but a search of his backpack did not find the weapon. Another teacher told Ms Parker that another child claimed to have seen the gun about an hour later but Ms Parker “took no further action”.

She forbade school employees from searching the boy further. An hour later, Ms Zwerner was shot.

Court documents filed against Ms Parker allege that she “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”.