NEWPORT NEWS, VA. — Ebony Parker, the former assistant principal at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia, is scheduled to stand trial Monday on eight felony child neglect charges connected to the January 2023 classroom shooting of teacher Abby Zwerner. Each of the eight counts corresponds to one of the bullets in the gun a 6-year-old student brought into Zwerner's classroom, and each carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison upon conviction.

Court documents allege Parker "did commit a willful act or omission in the care of such students, in a manner so gross, wanton and culpable as to show a reckless disregard for human life." Criminal charges against school officials following a school shooting are rare.

Zwerner was shot as she sat at a reading table in her classroom. She led her students out of the room before passing out in the school office. She spent nearly two weeks in the hospital and required six surgeries. A bullet narrowly missed her heart and remains in her chest, and she does not have the full use of her left hand.

Zwerner testified that she first heard about the gun prior to class recess from a reading specialist who had been tipped off by students. The shooting occurred a few hours later. Her attorneys said Parker failed to act in the hours before the shooting after several school staff members told her the student had a gun in his backpack. According to court records, Zwerner is scheduled to testify in the criminal case.

In November 2025, a jury awarded $10 million to Zwerner in a lawsuit, siding with her claims that Parker ignored repeated warnings that the child had a gun. Parker was the only defendant in the lawsuit, after a judge previously dismissed the district's superintendent and the school principal as defendants. The lawsuit said Parker had a duty to protect Zwerner and others from harm after being told about the gun.

The student told authorities he climbed to the top of a dresser to retrieve the gun from his mother's purse. The student's mother was sentenced to nearly four years in prison for felony child neglect and federal weapons charges.