The assistant principal of the Virginia elementary school where a teacher was shot by a six-year-old could now face up to 40 years in prison after she was charged with eight felony counts of child abuse and neglect, according to court documents that were unsealed on Thursday.
A special grand jury in Newport News indicted Ebony Parker, a little over a year after a child shot and seriously wounded Abigail Zwerner at Richneck Elementary School. Zwerner alleged in her $40 million lawsuit that Parker was repeatedly warned that the child had a gun, but the school administrator failed to act.
The child had "a history of random violence" and was removed from the school for strangling a teacher, according to the lawsuit. He was allowed to return the following school year with a modified schedule that required one of his parents to come to class with him - though neither was present the day Zwerner was shot.
Zwerner alleges that she informed Parker that the student was threatening his classmates and was in a "violent mood" on the day of the shooting but that the administrator failed to respond.
"Upon hearing that information, Assistant Principal Parker had no response, refusing even to look up at Plaintiff when she expressed her concerns, the lawsuit said.
During recess, another school employee searched the boy's backpack after Zwerner became concerned that the child was armed.
The teacher then suggested to Parker that the gun was on the boy's person but the administrator replied that the student's "pockets were too small to hold a handgun and did nothing." A second teacher said that another student had seen a gun but Parker did not act.
Zwerner's lawsuit alleges that Parker habitually failed to take action and was demeaning to school employees. She allowed students "to engage in dangerous and disruptive conduct and impose no consequence for breaking the rules, thereby placing all persons in the vicinity of the school and in the community at risk."
Parker's indictment is the latest in a string of legal decisions holding adults responsible for gun violence committed by minors. In Michigan, the parents of teenage school shooter Ethan Crumbley were each sentenced to 10 to 15 in prison this week on charges of involuntary manslaughter. Prosecutors alleged that they failed to intervene when their son began showing warning signs of mental illness and instead left unlocked guns in their home.
Emily Mapp Brannon, an attorney representing seven families whose children attended Richneck Elementary School, said that families "may find comfort in knowing that the administration is being held accountable," the Washington Post reported.
"These charges suggest that there is sufficient evidence that the students of Richneck were placed in peril by the very hands entrusted to protect them."
