Ex-school official charged with neglect over shooting

NEWPORT NEWS, Virginia —

A former assistant principal at a U.S. elementary school has been indicted on eight charges of child neglect in the case of a six-year-old boy who shot and wounded his first-grade teacher last year.

A special grand jury found that Ebony Parker showed a reckless disregard for the lives of Richneck Elementary School students on Jan. 6, 2023, according to indictments unsealed on Tuesday in Newport News Circuit Court, Virginia. Each of the charges is punishable by up to five years in prison.

Parker was working the day the boy fired a single shot at his teacher, Abigail Zwerner, during a reading class. Zwerner has filed a $40-million US lawsuit alleging that Parker ignored several warnings that the boy had a gun in school that day. Zwerner was seriously hurt in the shooting, but has recovered.

In the lawsuit, Zwerner’s lawyers describe a series of warnings that school employees gave administrators in the hours before the shooting, beginning with Zwerner, who went to Parker’s office and told her the boy “was in a violent mood,” had threatened to beat up a kindergartener and stared down a security officer in the lunchroom. The lawsuit alleges that Parker “had no response, refusing even to look up at [Zwerner] when she expressed her concerns.”

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.

The Associated Press left a message seeking comment from Parker’s lawyer.