Former school official returns to court for case of 6-year-old who shot teacher

U.S. newsFormer school official returns to court for case of 6-year-old who shot teacherLast year, Ebony Parker was found liable for ignoring warning signs that the child had a weapon.Listen to this article with a free account00:0000:00Virginia elementary school teacher Abigail Zwerner in 2023. Carlos Bernate for NBC NewsShareAdd NBC News to GoogleMay 18, 2026, 8:40 AM EDTBy Mirna AlsharifA former assistant principal is back in court Monday to face a criminal trial in connection with the 2023 shooting of a first-grade teacher by her 6-year-old student.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.Ebony Parker is facing eight counts of child abuse and neglect in connection with the Jan. 6, 2023, incident in which a 6-year-old child brought a gun to Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia, and shot teacher Abigail Zwerner in the hand and chest. Parker resigned from her position after the shooting.Last year, a jury awarded Zwerner $10 million after finding Parker liable for ignoring warning signs that the child had a weapon.Ebony Parker, the former vice principal of Richneck Elementary, appears in court last year.Court TVNow, Parker faces criminal charges in connection with the incident.Parker was indicted on the eight child abuse charges in 2024, each of which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.A 31-page grand jury report alleges that Parker failed to protect the 15 children, ages 6 and 7, in Zwerner’s class. It says Zwerner was injured by the 6-year-old student despite multiple warnings from staff members and other students who believed the boy had a gun and posed an imminent threat on the day of the shooting.Attorneys for Zwerner said that another student saw the 6-year-old take the gun out of his pocket on the playground and reported it to a teacher. When the teacher requested to search the child’s person, “the assistant principal said no.”In 2023, the child’s mother, Deja Taylor, wa...