Former Assistant Principal Faces Charges Over Teacher Shot by 6-Year-Old

At last some sanity is prevailing in the case of Abigail Zwerner, the Richneck Elementary School teacher who was shot by one of her 6-year-old students in January of 2023. Zwerner sued the school district and pointed out that administrators at the school were warned multiple times that a student with a prior history of violence had brought a gun to school, but did nothing about it. The district responded by arguing Zwerner’s injuries were covered by Workers’ Compensation, essentially arguing that getting shot by a student was just part of the job these days.

Deja Taylor, the mother of the 6-year-old shooter, pleaded guilty to lying on a form when she bought the gun used in the shooting and was given a 21-month federal sentence on top of a two-year state sentence. That was well-earned but still the administrators who ignored the danger that day seemed to have escaped any consequences.

But yesterday a grand jury in Virginia announced the former assistant principal who received the warnings would be charged with multiple counts of child abuse.

The former assistant principal of a Virginia elementary school where a 6-year-old student shot his teacher last year has been indicted on child abuse charges, court records show.

Ebony Parker faces eight counts related to the day of the shooting, according to the online docket, each of which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. A warrant has been issued for her arrest, the docket shows.

Court records filed in Newport News Circuit Court were unsealed Tuesday, about a month after a grand jury filed the charges.

As mentioned, Zwerner’s lawsuit claims Assistant Principal Ebony Parker received three separate warnings that the student in question had brought a gun to school that day.

Zwerner’s lawsuit alleges she reported to Parker on the day of the shooting that the 6-year-old was in a “violent mood” and threatened to beat up a kindergartner.

“Upon hearing that information, Assistant Principal Parker had no response, refusing even to look up at Plaintiff when she expressed her concerns,” the suit alleges.

A short time later, two students told a reading specialist the boy had a gun in his backpack, according to the lawsuit.

When questioned, the 6-year-old told the reading specialist he did not have a gun, but would not let her see his backpack, according to the lawsuit. During recess, Zwerner said, she told the reading specialist she thought the boy had taken something out of his backpack and put in his pocket.

The reading specialist then searched the boy’s backpack but did not find the gun, according to the lawsuit. The specialist went to the office and told Parker that students had said he had a gun, but Parker allegedly responded that the boy’s pockets were too small to hold a gun and did nothing.

During recess, the boy showed the gun to another student who then told a teacher. That teacher also relayed the claim made by the student to Assistant Principal Parker. Finally, a third person, a guidance counselor, also warned Parker about the student possibly having a gun. He wanted to search the student but Parker, according to the lawsuit, refused. About 45 minutes later, Zwerner was shot.

The charges against Parker were announced yesterday. Today, the grand jury released their full report on the situation which concludes that the student in question should have been removed from the school earlier. Specifically, there was a several prior incident of violence including one in which he choked a teacher during the previous school year.

Over the course of his kindergarten year the child exhibited many behavioral problems. He was disruptive in class and to his teacher Susan White (“Ms. White”). The child would “get in other kids faces” and when removed from class by a counselor would occasionally hit or punch that counselor. In one incident the child kicked and spit on the teacher assistant. After it was reported no action was taken by the administration, including Dr. Parker…

On September 27, 2021 Ms. White was concluding breakfast with the students when the child went to dump his breakfast in the hallway trash can and never returned. Ms. White went to search for him and found him with the security guard. When Ms. White tried to take his hand and bring him back to class the child hit Ms. White and yelled, ”No! I don’t want to go back to class.” The child then aggressively twisted and pulled down on the security guards wrist. Due to his behavior the security guard took the child to Dr. Parker while Ms. White retumed to class.

Subsequently, a counselor retumed to the class with the child and told him to sit down.

At some point Ms. White was sitting in a kids chair teaching the class. The child went up behind Ms. White, placed his forearms in front of her neck and pulled down so hard she couldn’t breathe choking her. The teacher assistant saw Ms. White being choked by the child and rescued her by pulling the child’s arms off and removing him from the class.

After only a couple of hours the receptionist returned the child to class. Understandably shocked, Ms. White stepped out of the class and told her that the child had “no business being back in class” after what had happened, The receptionist responded that the child was brought back because ‘there was no administrator available to deal with the situation.”

Ms. White’s teacher assistant took over the class while Ms. White went to get and fill out an incident referral form. She brought the incident referral forrn to Dr. Parker and Dr. Goodman. She also kept a copy for herself. She explained what happened to which Dr. Parker did not respond at all and Dr. Goodman responded by saying, “Prioritize.”

The following year this student was socially promoted to Ms. Zwerner’s first grad class despite ongoing discipline issues.

Despite the fact that the child had never completed Kindergarten, was not at the same reading level of his peers and that he had enough documented substantial behavioral problems known by Dr. Parker to have him physically removed from the school the year prior, the child was placed in Ms. Zwerner’s first grade class for a total of 23 students enrolled.

The child immediately exhibited behavioral problems similar to the year prior. He was reckless, physically aggressive, used profanity toward the teachers and even choked another student…

On January 4, 2023 the child became defiant during recess. He refused to join reading group, constantly spoke back to Ms. Zwemer and refused to participate in the lesson. During reading time in small groups the child grabbed Ms. Zwemer’s phone off the table, held it up high while staring her down and slammed it to the ground. The phone case flew off causing the screen to crack.

Ms. Zwerner then had to walk the child to the other first grade class to communicate for assistance as there was only onc shared walkie talkie between the two classrooms and two teachers. When the child retrieved his belongings he told Ms. Zwemer, “I’m never coming back to your room again, you bitch.”  

He was suspended for one day.

That day of suspension was Jan. 5. He returned to school on Jan. 6, the day Abby Zwerner was shot.

It’s remarkable that teachers should be expected to put up with this kind of violent behavior while administrators sit in their offices and do nothing. Assistant Principal Parker deserves to be punished for her (alleged) negligence which almost got Zwerner killed.