Virginia prosecutor says assistant principal ignored warnings before 6-year-old shot teacher

The assistant principal of a Virginia elementary school where a 6-year-old student shot his teacher in 2023 did nothing after receiving repeated warnings that the boy had a gun, a prosecutor told a jury Tuesday.

Before the January 2023 shooting at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, school employees told Ebony Parker they believed the student had a gun in his backpack, but she dismissed their concerns, said special prosecutor Josh Jenkins. Parker faces eight counts of felony child neglect for her role in the incident, which wounded first-grade teacher Abby Zwerner.

During opening statements, Jenkins said Parker told staff who approached her that the boy's mother would soon arrive to pick him up. He said she did not order a search, call police or remove the child from the classroom.

"She didn't even get up from her desk. She didn't leave her office. Warning after warning after warning, she did nothing," Jenkins said.

Parker's attorney, Curtis Rogers, said teachers should have acted if they believed a gun was present. He said they could have at least separated the child from the other 19 students in the classroom.

"That did not occur," Rogers said. "Each one of those individuals had the authority to move those classmates."

Rogers placed blame on Zwerner and others who had contact with the child before the shooting. He said the prosecution must prove Parker's actions showed reckless disregard for human life.

Jenkins said school policy required crisis situations to be reported to an administrator who must take action. A school counselor asked for permission to search the child, but Parker denied the request because only an administrator or security officer could conduct searches. The school's security officer was at another school that day.

That left Parker and the principal with authority to act, but the principal knew nothing about the threat because Parker did not tell 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," Jenkins said.

Zwerner was the first witness called. She said the student had slammed her phone to the ground days earlier and was in a violent mood the day of the shooting. During recess, the boy wore an oversized jacket with both hands in his pockets. Zwerner sent a text about the observation to a reading specialist who had already reported concerns about a gun to Parker.

After recess, the student kept the jacket on in the classroom, where Zwerner was shot at a reading table. She spent nearly two weeks in the hospital, required six surgeries and does not have full use of her left hand. A bullet narrowly missed her heart and remains in her chest.

The eight counts Parker faces include one for each bullet in the gun, prosecutors said. Each count carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

Criminal charges against school officials after a school shooting are rare, experts say. The shooting sent shock waves through the military shipbuilding community and the country, with many wondering how a child so young could gain access to a gun.

A jury awarded $10 million to Zwerner in a civil trial last November in which Parker, who no longer works at the school, was the only defendant.

The student's mother was sentenced to nearly four years in prison for felony child neglect and federal weapons charges.