Ex-Assistant Principal Charged After First Grader Shot Teacher In Classroom

A former Virginia elementary school administrator was indicted last month on eight felony charges in connection to an incident last year in which a 6-year-old student shot his teacher, prosecutors announced on Wednesday.

A Newport News special grand jury charged Ebony Parker, the former assistant principal at Richneck Elementary School, with eight counts of child neglect, according to a press release by the commonwealth’s attorney and the special grand jury report released Wednesday.

Parker’s charges stem from Jan. 6, 2023, whena first-grade student brought his mother’s gun to school and shot his teacher, Abigail Zwerner.

Multiple school staff members had informed Parker the boy had a gun, but she dismissed those concerns, the report alleged. The grand jury found her “criminally liable” for her “lack of actions” because her duties as assistant principal included the “responsibility to care for the children in Ms. Zwerner’s classroom and throughout the school.”

The day of the shooting, Zwerner told Parker she was concerned about the boy’s “aggression,” but Parkerdid not “look away from her computer screen” or “acknowledge Ms. Zwerner’s presence,” according to the report.

Another teacher, identified as Ms. Kovac, was informed by two students that the boy had a gun in his bag, according to the report. Kovac went into Zwerner’s classroom to ask the boy if he had a gun and asked to search his bag, which he denied.

According to the report, Kovac told Parker the boy would not let her check his bag and “was acting unlike his normal self.”

Parker “did not inquire further with any questions, took no further action, and did not appear to show concern,” the grand jury alleged. Kovac later searched the boy’s backpack, but did not