Assistant principal ignored warnings about 6-year-old boy

NORFOLK, VA.>>

A former assistant principal at a Virginia elementary school showed a “shocking” lack of response to multiple warnings that a 6-yearold had a gun in the hours before he shot his teacher, according to a grand jury report released Wednesday.

“The child was not searched. The child was not removed from class. The police or SRO was not called,” the report said, referring to a school resource officer.

The report was released a day after the former administrator, Ebony Parker, was charged with eight counts of felony child neglect, one for “each of the eight bullets that endangered all the students” in teacher Abby Zwerner’s classroom, Newport News prosecutors said in a statement.

The 31-page report offers fresh details about the January 2023 shooting and serious wounding of Zwerner, which occurred after the boy brought his mother’s gun to school in a backpack. And it catalogues missed opportunities to provide more resources to the often-misbehaving student, as well as tools Parker could have used to remove him from class, such as alternative school, in the months before the shooting.

“Dr. Parker’s lack of response and initiative given the seriousness of the information she had received on Jan. 6, 2023, is shocking,” the grand jury report said. “This is only heightened by the fact that she was well aware of the child’s past disciplinary issues.

The report also provides a granular, often minute-by-minute accounting of each time the special grand jury said Parker disregarded concerns. For instance, one teacher spoke of a

“visibly scared and shaking” child who reported seeing bullets from the boy’s 9mm handgun during recess.

A counselor, Rolonzo Rawles, then told Parker the same story, according to the report.

“Mr. Rawls, now the third person and fourth time this message had been relayed, went back to Dr. Parker and communicated that the child either had a gun or ammunition at least,” it said. Parker refused to let the boy be searched after his backpack was searched, the report said, describing the child sitting as his desk with “a loaded firearm tucked into his jacket.”