The 11-member panel also suggested a criminal investigation against a high-ranking member of the Newport News school district for obstructing the investigation into the high-profile shooting, after key pieces of evidence — the boy’s disciplinary records — were revealed. disappeared.
The special grand jury reserved its harshest judgments for Richneck’s former assistant principal, Ebony Parker, who was warned three times on the day of the shooting that the boy had a weapon but did nothing.
“Dr. Parker’s lack of response and initiative given the severity of the information she received on January 6, 2023 is shocking,” the panel wrote in its 24-page report.
The special grand jury was impaneled by Newport News Commonwealth’s Attorney Howard E. Gwynn to examine whether security lapses that contributed to last year’s shooting that left Zwerner seriously injured attracted attention national and led to the ouster of the school director.
The report was released a day after the special grand jury’s indictment against Parker was revealed. Parker faces eight counts of child abuse, perhaps the first time an administrator has been charged for the handling of a school shooting, experts said.
Gwynn’s office declined to comment on what prompted the charges, but a $40 million lawsuit filed by Zwerner claims Parker ignored multiple warnings from teachers and other staff that the boy had a weapon fired on the day of the shooting.
Parker’s attorney did not respond to requests for comment, but denied Zwerner’s allegations in response to his court complaint. Parker is scheduled to appear in Newport News Circuit Court Thursday morning. She resigned from Richneck after the shooting.
The incident began when the 6-year-old took his mother’s gun out of her purse on her dresser and brought it to school in her backpack on January 6, 2023.
Zwerner’s lawsuit claims she warned Parker that day that the boy was in a violent mood and had threatened to beat a kindergartener, but that Parker did nothing. Zwerner says this is one of many moments where Parker could have intervened to prevent the shooting.
Later that day, two students told a reading specialist that the boy had said he owned a gun, according to the lawsuit. The reading specialist questioned the boy, but he denied having a gun and would not let the teacher search his backpack.
During recess that followed, Zwerner told the reading specialist that she thought she saw the boy take something out of his backpack and put it in his pocket, according to the lawsuit. The reading specialist searched the boy’s backpack but did not find the weapon. The reading specialist then told Parker that the students had told him the boy had a gun.
Zwerner’s lawsuit claims a student told another teacher that the boy had shown his classmate a gun on the playground. The teacher also relayed the information to Parker through an intermediary.
Shortly before the shooting, a guidance counselor asked Parker to search the boy for a gun, but she denied his request, according to Zwerner’s lawsuit. The boy pulled out his gun and fired a single shot at him, hitting his hand and chest.
Zwerner was taken to the hospital and a teacher restrained the boy.
Deja Taylor, the boy’s mother, was convicted of gun violations and child neglect in federal and state courts after the shooting. Taylor admitted to lying about his marijuana use during his background check to purchase the gun and not keeping his son’s gun. She is currently serving prison sentences.
Gwynn impaneled the special grand jury in April 2023, asking it to investigate “any actions or omissions by current or former employees of the Newport News school system that may have contributed to this shooting.”
The panel began collecting testimony in September. She heard 19 witnesses, amassed hundreds of pages of documents and videos to write her report. Under Virginia law, special grand juries have broad investigative powers.
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