A former elementary school assistant principal in Virginia faces several felony child neglect charges after being accused of failing to prevent a 6-year-old boy from shooting his first-grade teacher last year.
Authorities charged 39-year-old Ebony Parker with eight counts of felony child neglect after she allegedly showed “a reckless disregard for the human life” of students at Richneck Elementary School, according to newly unsealed court documents obtained by the Virginian-Pilot.
Each of those counts is punishable by up to five years in prison.
Those charges are connected to a shooting on January 6, 2023, in which a first-grader pulled a handgun out of his hoodie and shot his teacher, Abby Zwerner, while the two of them were sitting at a reading table. The bullet that struck Zwerner went through her left hand and into her upper chest. Zwerner survived her injuries.
The boy said he got the gun from his mother’s pocketbook that sat on top of her dresser before bringing it to school that day. His mother, 26-year-old Deja Taylor, pleaded guilty to felony child neglect in connection to the shooting and was sentenced to two years in prison.
She was also given a 21-month prison term for possessing marijuana and a gun at the same time after she lied about her drug use on a gun purchasing form and is barred from seeing her son until he turns 18.
Now, Parker faces prosecution in the shooting case. She served as Richneck’s assistant principal for about two years but resigned after the shooting.
The indictments state she was “a person responsible for the care of students under the age of 18 at Richneck Elementary School,” yet committed “a willful act or omission in the care of such students” that was “so gross, wanton, and culpable as to show a reckless disregard for human life.”
The shooting took place in front of more than a dozen first-grade students, according to police.
Zwerner filed a $40 million lawsuit against the Newport News school…
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