A circuit court judge in Virginia dropped the criminal charges against Dr. Ebony Parker, a former elementary school assistant principal, on Thursday.
Parker was accused a ignoring the warnings that a 6-year-old boy at Richneck Elementary school had a gun shortly before he shot his teacher.
Parker’s defense team argued that the allegations against their client were not criminal in nature. Judge Rebecca Robinson agreed.
“This court is of the legal opinion that this is not a crime,” said the judge.
The charges stem from a January 2023 shooting where the child shot and injured his teacher, Abby Zwerner. The child got the gun from his mother’s purse and had the weapon in his backpack.
Parker pled not guilty to eight felony counts of child abuse and disregard for life and was facing up to five years in prison on each charge.
According to court documents, she was accused of “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.”
The child’s mother, Deja Taylor, pleaded guilty to felony child neglect and federal gun charges related to the shooting. She was released last week. The child, who was described by prosecutors as having emotional issues, will not be criminally charged.
Parker’s case is said to be precedent-setting, as she is the first school employees to go on trial for a school shooting.
During her trial, the prosecution called 16 witnesses from teachers to law enforcement officials. Many educators testified that Parker was told that there were concerns that the child, who had a history of behavioral challenges, was in possession of a firearm. Parker allegedly told a teacher to search the boy’s backpack, but not his pockets.
“There was only one person in the school that day that had both the authority to act and the knowledge of the ongoing crisis, and that person will see was Dr. Parker,” said Assistant Commonwealth Attorney Josh Jenkins.
Parker’s defense team instead accused even the wounded teacher of being the people who failed to take action to protect students.
“If the commonwealth wants to accuse Dr. Parker, what about these other people that had direct contact with this child?” asked Curtis Rogers, one of the defense attorneys.
According to reporters inside the courtroom, the defense repeatedly interrupted witnesses with objections about evidence. The two sides even hashed out the merits of evidence in front of the jury, which is unusual. One juror even told the court he was confused.
Before the defense presented its own evidence on Thursday morning, it asked the judge to dismiss the case based on the prosecution not having established that a crime had occurred.
“The court is unclear. As previously stated, those legal theories do not fit the plain reading of the statute,” said the judge. “Therefore, I do grant the defense motion to strike in whole on all counts.”
The ruling was made with prejudice, which means that the charges cannot be brought to trial again.
