FILE - Signs stand outside Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Va., Jan. 25, 2023. A former assistant principal at a Virginia elementary school has been indicted on eight felony counts of child neglect in the case of a 6-year-old boy who shot and wounded his first-grade teacher in Newport News, Virginia, last year, according to indictments unsealed Tuesday, April 9, 2024, in Newport News Circuit Court.
In the lawsuit, Zwerner's lawyers describe a series of warnings that school employees gave administrators in the hours before the shooting, beginning with Zwerner, who went to Parker’s office and told her the boy “was in a violent mood,” had threatened to beat up a kindergartener and stared down a security officer in the lunchroom. Thethat Parker “had no response, refusing even to look up at when she expressed her concerns.
The lawsuit also alleges that a reading specialist told Parker that the boy had told students he had a gun. Parker responded that his “pockets were too small to hold a handgun and did nothing,” the lawsuit states. The indictments allege that 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.”Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.