The assistant principal of a Virginia elementary school where a 6-year-old shot his teacher in January 2023 is now on trial, with a prosecutor telling jurors Tuesday that she "did nothing" despite repeated warnings from school staff that the child had a gun.
Ebony Parker, former assistant principal at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, faces eight counts of felony child neglect for her role in the incident, which wounded first-grade teacher Abby Zwerner.
In opening statements, special prosecutor Josh Jenkins told the jury that school employees approached Parker multiple times before the shooting to say they believed the student had a gun in his backpack, and that she dismissed their concerns, telling them the child's mother would be arriving soon to pick him up.
"Does she say 'search the child'? No," Jenkins told the jury. "Does she say 'call the police,' or does she call the police? No. Does she remove the child from the classroom and separate him? No. She didn't even get up from her desk. She didn't leave her office. Warning after warning after warning, she did nothing."
School policy at the time required crisis situations to be reported to an administrator who was then required to take action. A school counselor had asked for permission to search the child, but Parker denied the request on the grounds that searches could only be conducted by an administrator or a security officer. The school's security officer was away at another school at the time.
The school's principal knew nothing about the threat because Parker had not told her, Jenkins said. "There was only one person in the school that day that had both the authority to act and the knowledge of the ongoing crisis, and that person, you will see, was Dr. Parker," he told the jury.
Parker's defense attorney, Curtis Rogers, argued that other school employees also had the authority and opportunity to act. He said the prosecution must prove Parker's actions showed a reckless disregard for human life and placed responsibility on Zwerner and others who had direct contact with the child before the shooting. "What about these other people who had direct contact with this child?" Rogers said. "Each one of those individuals had the authority to move those classmates."
Zwerner was the first witness called to testify. She said the student had slammed her phone to the ground a few days before the shooting and was in a "violent" mood that day. During recess, the student wore an oversized jacket with both hands in his pockets the entire time. Zwerner said she sent a text message describing the observation to a reading specialist who had been working with the child.
