Principal of VA school where first grader shot teacher faces decades in prison if convicted in criminal trial
A former Virginia elementary school administrator who was hit with a $10 million verdict after a teacher was shot by a 6-year-old student is now on trial for criminal child neglect charges — and she faces decades in prison if convicted.Jury selection got underway Monday in the case against Ebony Parker, the ex-vice principal of Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Va., where former teacher Abby Zwerner was shot by a first grade student on Jan.6, 2023.Zwerner is slated to testify and could take the stand as early as Tuesday, her lawyers confirmed to The Post.
The 28-year-old educator previously testified in her civil case that she thought she “died” and was going “to heaven” after being shot in the chest.She carries fragments of the bullet in her body to this day.Zwerner sued Parker for $40 million, claiming she failed to intervene despite warning signs the first-grader brought a gun into school that day and was acting alarmingly.A jury awarded Zwerner $10 million in damages against Parker in November.Parker is charged with eight counts of child neglect for each of the eight bullets that were inside the pistol that the student brought into school that day.
She faces up to five years behind bars on each count.The student’s mom, Deja Taylor, was previously sentenced in 2023 to two years in prison after she copped to child neglect charges.In a separate federal weapons case, she was sentenced to 21 months.
The son told officials he got the 9mm handgun from her purse.He doesn’t face criminal or civil liability.Parker has pleaded not guilty.At the civil trial, Zwerner’s lawyers argued the buck stopped with Parker who had received reports that day from staffers about the possibility that the boy having a gun.
Still, Parker refused to have the boy searched, despite having three opportunities to do so.Meanwhile, Parker’s civil lawyers argued no one could have foreseen what would unfold and that errors occurred by staffers from the bottom to the to...