A 6-year-old boy who injured his teacher in Virginia last year had a history of violent incidents at school, including choking another teacher, leading to his expulsion from kindergarten, according to an investigative report released on Wednesday.
Virginia
The report, spanning 30 pages and issued by a special grand jury appointed by the city’s chief prosecutor, detailed the boy’s documented disruptive behavior and physical aggression towards classmates and staff at Richneck Elementary Virginia School in Newport News, Virginia.
Former assistant principal Ebony Parker, especially, was criticized in the report for what it described as numerous failures to effectively address the child’s disciplinary issues or to communicate with the parents of his classmates. The grand jury attributed criminal liability to Parker’s “shocking” lapses of judgment and inaction, leading to the gun violence.
An indictment returned by the Virginia grand jury charged Parker with eight counts of felony child neglect, corresponding to each bullet fired from the handgun the boy brought to school and used to shoot first-grade teacher Abigail Zwerner on Jan. 6, 2023. The charges, punishable by up to five years in prison each, were unsealed on Tuesday, marking a rare instance of a school administrator facing criminal prosecution over school gun violence.
The grand jury found that Virginia Parker failed to act on four occasions when students and staff reported suspicions of the boy bringing a firearm to school on the day of the shooting. Parker even refused to allow his backpack to be searched at one point, according to the report.
Similar allegations were made in a civil lawsuit filed against school administrators by Zwerner last April. Parker has yet to comment on the matter, but her attorney, as reported by the Washington Post, has denied the allegations.
The report also criticized school administrators in general for missed opportunities and questionable decisions in failing to provide adequate support services for the boy, who exhibited behavioral and emotional disturbances. Despite a prior incident in kindergarten where he choked a teacher, resulting in his expulsion, he was readmitted to Richneck the following academic year, where his disruptive behavior persisted.
Security lapses were also highlighted in the report, with the grand jury noting that the situation could have been far more dire had the boy’s gun not jammed after the first shot.
Zwerner was wounded by a single bullet and managed to evacuate her students before seeking help. The boy was subdued by a reading specialist until law enforcement arrived.
Prosecutors declined to charge the boy, while his mother, Deja Taylor, pleaded guilty to child neglect and gun charges and is currently serving a two-year sentence for both. She is prohibited from contacting her son until he turns 18, at which point he was placed in the care of her relatives.
The grand jury report exonerated the then-principal of the school, Briana Foster, determining that she was unaware of the unfolding events due to a series of meetings on the day of the shooting.
