NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — The trial for Ebony Parker, the former assistant principal at Richneck Elementary, has been dismissed by the judge.
Parker broke down in tears as the judge ruled on a defense motion to strike down the case. The judge continued that some of the issues debated in the trial were legal theories, and in order for them to amount to a crime, the Virginia General Assembly would need to essentially write new laws.
Watch: Reporters question Ebony Parker after case is dismissed
The case concludes a major lingering chapter in the saga that followed the shooting of former first-grade teacher Abby Zwerner by a 6-year-old student in her class on Jan. 6, 2023.
The bullet went through her hand and pierced her chest, nearly killing her and, according to testimony in the civil suit, permanently damaged her hand and shortened her expected lifespan.
In the weeks and months that followed, numerous officials within the Newport News school division were removed or reassigned, Zwerner's team filed a $40 million civil suit against the Newport News School Division alleging gross negligence.
Eventually, the defendants in that suit were removed and Parker, as the school administrator informed about the gun reports, was the sole member of the division who remained a defendant.
Deja Taylor, the mother of the 6-year-old shooter, was tried and convicted in 2023 of child neglect in allowing her son to access the gun he used to shoot Zwerner. She was convicted of an additional federal charge for lying on a gun purchase form about her marijuana use.
Parker was also hit with eight charges of felony child neglect — one for every bullet in the gun — which is an extremely rare charge for an administrator following a school shooting. Prosecutors accused her of gross, wanton and culpable negligence that put the children's lives in danger.
And although the civil trial found her to be grossly negligent in not preventing Zwerner's shooting, with the burden of proof higher, the judge said that the inaction of Parker did not constitute a crime.
