NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (Court TV) — The defense for a former assistant principal facing charges after a 6-year-old boy pulled a gun in class tried to place blame on other adults in the case, including the teacher who was shot.
Ebony Parker looks on during jury selection. (Peter Casey/The Virginian-Pilot via AP, Pool)
Ebony Parker has pleaded not guilty to eight counts of felony child abuse following an incident at Richneck Elementary School, where she worked as an assistant principal at the time.
On Jan. 6, 2023, a first grader identified only as “J.T.” in the court record, brought a gun to school and used it to fire a single shot at his teacher, Abigail Zwerner. The bullet went through Zwerner’s hand and into her chest.
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“In this incident, a teacher was shot,” prosecutor Josh Jenkins said in his opening statement to the jury on Tuesday. “That is a horrific tragedy, and I do feel for Ms. Zwerner. But this case is not about Ms. Zwerner. This case is about the children who lived through this event in Ms. Zwerner’s classroom.” To that end, prosecutors filed one child abuse count for each bullet that was in the loaded gun in Zwerner’s classroom. Only one bullet was discharged; a second bullet was found jammed in the weapon’s action.
Abigail Zwerner testifies at Ebony Parker’s criminal trial. (Court TV)
“This case is about the 19 children whose lives were endangered in that moment, but the moments before as well,” Jenkins said. “Those children, some of them, were between the gun and Ms. Zwerner.”
Jenkins said there were multiple warnings before J.T. fired the weapon, and that Parker had explicitly told concerned teachers not to search the child despite another student reporting that he had a gun. “She didn’t even get up from her desk,” Jenkins said. “She didn’t even leave her office.”
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Curtis Rogers, Parker’s defense attorney, told the jury in his opening statement that Parker was only one of multiple adults who had the opportunity to act that day at the school. “The teacher failed to act to separate the student from his classmates,” he said.
Zwerner was the first witness called to testify as the prosecution began presenting its case on Tuesday. “I told [Parker] specifically that [J.T.] seemed to be off already that day and in a violent mood,” she said of the hours leading up to the shooting. When the student fired the gun, Zwerner said she had several students near her as part of a small group reading exercise.
During cross-examination, Rogers pressed the teacher about her own behavior.
Rogers: “What action did you personally take to protect students in your classroom from J.T. being potentially armed?”
Zwerner: “I trusted my colleagues.”
While this is Parker’s first criminal trial, she was previously found liable in a lawsuit Zwerner filed against her. If she is convicted in this trial, Parker faces a maximum of five years for each count of abuse.
