Ebony Parker's criminal trial began Monday in Newport News, Virginia, centered on whether she failed to act on repeated warnings that a child in her school had brought a loaded firearm to class. Prosecutors contend that her inaction led directly to a first-grade teacher being shot in January 2023.
Parker, the ex-assistant principal at Richneck Elementary School, faces eight felony counts of child neglect, one corresponding to each bullet in the gun the student carried into the building. Conviction on each count carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
The charges allege Parker "did commit a willful act or omission in the care of such students, in a manner so gross, wanton and culpable as to show a reckless disregard for human life," according to court documents filed in the case.
On the morning of the shooting, multiple school staff members reported to Parker that the six-year-old had a gun in his backpack. A reading specialist had learned of the weapon from students and alerted teacher Abby Zwerner before the class took its recess break. The shooting happened hours later while Zwerner sat at a reading table with her class.
Zwerner was struck by a bullet that narrowly missed her heart and lodged in her chest. She underwent six surgeries during nearly two weeks of hospitalization and lost full function in her left hand. Despite her injuries, she managed to evacuate her students from the classroom before losing consciousness in the school office.
The shooting reverberated through the military shipbuilding community of Newport News and across the nation, prompting difficult questions about how a child so young could access a firearm and use it against an adult in a school setting.
Criminal charges against school officials in connection with a shooting remain exceptionally uncommon. Experts have noted the rarity of prosecutors pursuing such cases against administrators, making the Parker trial a notable development in school safety accountability.
Last November, a jury awarded Zwerner $10 million in a civil lawsuit naming Parker as the sole defendant. Parker had been dismissed from her position by the time of that verdict. The same judge who presided over the civil case previously dismissed the school district's superintendent and principal as defendants in Zwerner's lawsuit, focusing responsibility on the assistant principal.
Zwerner's legal team argued that Parker had a duty to protect her and other school occupants once informed about the firearm. The lawsuit contended that Parker failed to take action despite staff members alerting her to the threat in the hours before the incident.
The child's mother was sentenced to nearly four years in prison after pleading guilty to felony child neglect and federal weapons violations. She had kept the gun in her purse, and her son told authorities he climbed atop a dresser to retrieve it.
Author James Rodriguez: "Parker's trial tests whether school administrators can be held criminally accountable for overlooking warnings, and the verdict could reshape how districts handle threat reports."
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