A judge in the US state of Virginia has dismissed charges against a former assistant principal at a school where a six-year-old shot his teacher during class.
Ebony Parker faced felony child abuse charges for allegedly ignoring warnings that the first-grade student at her elementary school had a gun.
Her defence team argued that the state had not made its case against Parker, and Circuit Court Judge Rebecca Robinson agreed, striking down all eight counts, including disregard for life.
Dressed in a checked blazer in court, Parker sobbed and put her head on the defendant’s table as the judge dismissed the charges against her.
“What happened that day was awful,” Robinson said from the bench.
In January 2023, the child fired a single shot at teacher Abigail Zwerner, who had to undergo surgery after a bullet went through her hand and struck her in the chest.
Zwerner was awarded $10m (£7.5m) in a lawsuit she filed against Parker after the shooting.
The lawsuit claimed that the then-assistant principal ignored at least three warnings that the child had a gun at school on the day of the January 2023 incident, which took place in the city of Newport News.
In one instance outlined in the lawsuit, Zwerner’s lawyers said she told Parker that the child was in a “violent mood” and had made threats against another child.
Parker allegedly “had no response” and refused to “even look up” when concerns about the child were brought to her.
Additionally, Parker was accused of ignoring warnings from other staff that the young boy might have brought a gun to school, as well as rebuffing a request to search his bag.
Parker’s lawyer argued that she could not have known what would happen and that Zwerner had exaggerated the extent of her injuries.
But a jury sided with the former teacher, finding that Parker’s lack of action amounted to gross negligence.
The child’s mother, 26-year-old Deja Nicole Taylor, was also charged with felony child neglect after the child took her gun to school.
She pleaded guilty and was sentenced in December to two years on the state charges, in addition to 21 months on federal gun charges for lying about drug use on the form required to obtain the weapon.
After the shooting, investigators found roughly 1oz (28g) of cannabis in Taylor’s home. While the drug is legal in many states, including Virginia, it is illegal to own a gun while being an active drug user.
The child, who was not charged with any wrongdoing, told police he obtained the firearm by climbing onto a drawer to reach his mother’s handbag on top of a dresser, where the handgun was kept.
He is now reportedly in the care of a relative and enrolled at a different school.
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