NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Richneck Elementary School had security issues and administrative failures leading up to a 6-year-old student shooting his first-grade teacher Abby Zwerner last year, a report from a special grand jury concluded.
The report detailed the reasons why former Assistant Principal Ebony Parker was charged with eight counts of child neglect, accusing her of ignoring four warnings that the child brought a gun to school on the day of the shooting on Jan. 6, 2023.
A day before the report was released, 13News Now obtained court documents showing that Parker, 39, was indicted on March 11, citing "reckless disregard for human life" while being responsible for students at Richneck.
"Over the course of approximately two hours, Dr. Parker acted in complete disregard for the safety of all the children in Ms. Zwerner's class, all the children the child played with at recess, and all the children who could have been shot in the school," the jurors wrote in their report.
The report comes after the grand jury was impaneled on Sept. 11, 2023, at the request of the Newport News Commonwealth's Attorney. Their findings are the result of reviewing hundreds of documents, hearing testimony from 19 people, and watching body cam and surveillance footage.
Administrators made poor decisions before shooting, report says
Jurors put Parker at the center of decisions regarding the child leading up to the shooting, including not providing certain behavioral resources sooner, dismissing his teachers' concerns, and allowing the child's parents to attend class without conducting a background check.
The grand jury described the child as having demonstrated aggressive behavior, including an incident on Sept. 27, 2021, when the student allegedly choked his kindergarten teacher. He also once "kicked and spit on the teacher assistant" and bragged about smoking his mother's marijuana, the report said.
According to the report, "no Functional Behavioral Assessment ("FBA") or Behavior Intervention Plan ("BIP") was initiated" before or after his incident despite school counselors and school resources officers (SROs) having to help the teacher with the child's behavior.
Instead, administrators decided to send the child back to preschool at a different school, resulting in his removal.
When the 2022-23 school year began, Zwerner and another first-grade teacher noted the lack of kindergarten records for the child when they reviewed files for incoming students. When bringing the issue to Parker, she said the child's mother took him to Chicago for school, the report said.
"However, this information was not verified, and no further information or paperwork was provided," the jurors wrote.
Ultimately, the child was enrolled in Zwerner's first-grade class, despite not having finished kindergarten, not having the same reading levels as his peers, and having documented substantial problems with his behaviors, the report said.
According to the report, when the child continued to demonstrate behavioral problems, administrators didn't place him in any special program, such as an FBA, BIP, or Individualized Education Program (IEP), or recommend him for alternative school or an emotionally disturbed classroom.
Instead, he was placed into a student success program comprised of Parker, Principal Briana Foster-Newton, the child's mother, a reading specialist, and Zwerner.
The report said the program involved several adjustments under both Foster-Newton's and Parker's guidance, including reducing the child's hours at school and alone time for reading sessions.
Another decision implemented by Foster-Newton was allowing the child's mother and occasionally, father, to attend class with him, a move that jurors criticized as a safety threat.
"Despite the Father's public documentation of a criminal record and Ms. Taylor's habitual drug use, a background check was never run on either parent to ensure the safety of the other students also sitting in that classroom," the jurors wrote, also noting that other parents weren't notified either.
School had security issues leading up to shooting
Another failure included a door buzzer system at the front of the building that was broken for weeks leading up to the shooting, an issue that later slowed down Newport News police's response.
"If a parent came to pick up their child they had to knock or pound on the door to try to get someone's attention or wait until someone passed by to open the door and let them in," the jurors wrote. "There was no process in place to make sure the person entering was an actual parent or legal guardian with legitimate cause to enter."
According to the report, parents made several complaints about the issues, with one parent proposing a fundraiser to the administration to fix the door. But the problem went unsolved up to the day of the shooting.
When authorities responded to the shooting, two deputies had to bang on the door, call the intercom system, and even consider shooting the glass to get inside. A custodian saw the two after a minute of waiting and banging, according to the report.
The report also took issue with the school's lack of a consistent full-time SRO, since the one they had spent half the day at another school. While Parker testified that teachers could call a non-emergency number or the "surrounding SRO," the jurors noted that the SRO didn't have a work phone and there was no number posted anywhere for faculty to call.
Other security issues mentioned in the report include the failure to conduct mandatory lockdown drills during the 2022-23 school year, the lack of doors and permanent walls in second-grade classrooms, and no consistency in emergency protocol training.
Administrators closed doors during shooting, even after seeing Zwerner collapse
According to the report, Foster-Newton and Parker were in the main office — along with a student's grandmother, the receptionist and a boy — when a woman rushed in to say someone had been shot. That's when Parker went into her office and closed the door. Foster had also closed her door, the report said.
The grandmother sprang into action to help the boy, who had started crying. She knocked on the principal's door, saying there was a child out there, but both her and Parker's doors stayed shut. According to the report, the boy hid in a tight space between the copier and the wall.
After the shooting, Zwerner walked from her classroom to the main office, where she passed out in front of Foster-Newton's door.
"[Foster-Newton] opened the door, saw Ms. Zwerner and shut the door again, telling two kids in her office to get into the bathroom," the report stated. "Ms. Foster then emerged from her office while the Grandmother applied pressure with a rag to Ms. Zwerner's wound until the paramedics arrived."
The jurors noted that while there were contradictions in testimonies regarding what unfolded in the office, the most credible part was that Dr. Parker and Ms. Foster acted as described in the report.
NNPS official's testimony 'suspicious' regarding missing disciplinary records
As the investigation into the shooting went forward, law enforcement obtained electronic disciplinary records from Newport News Public Schools (NNPS), which included incidents on Sept. 21, 2021, Sept. 6, 2022, and Jan. 4, 2023. The records didn't include the Sept. 27, 2021 choking incident.
Investigators also sought physical files regarding the child, one in the school's main office and the other in Zwerner's classroom. But when law enforcement executed a search warrant, the files weren't found in either location.
"Every other students file was in both locations," the jurors wrote.
After investigators inquired with NNPS, Director of Elementary School Leadership LaQuiche Parrott returned one file, "where it was in her home, or she claims, her car," according to the report. The return of the file happened after former NNPS Chief of Staff Rashard Wright called Parrott.
The file, the only one returned to law enforcement, was missing all the child's disciplinary records, including details regarding the Sept. 27, 2021, choking incident, the report said.
When investigators asked about it, Parrott responded: "I can't think of any reason why it would not be there."
The jurors noted that Parrott, during her testimony, "had total amnesia" regarding her getting the file, despite having complete recollection of what happened on the day of the shooting.
"Her answer to every question regarding the file was 'I can't recall,'" the jurors wrote.
According to the report, Foster-Newton testified that Parrott called sometime after the shooting asking for the file, to which Foster-Newton directed her to the records manager.
The report also details a meeting in 2022, including Parrott, Foster-Newton and Parker, to discuss the child's history and why he was placed in a first-grade class despite not completing kindergarten.
The report said Parrott testified that, during the meeting, she had no clue the child was involved in a choking incident and claimed she wouldn't have known about it because she couldn't access student files until April 2023.
The jurors concluded the section by calling Parrott's testimony "highly suspicious and potentially obstruction of justice."
"It is at its best a complete lack of competence as to how things were run and recorded and at its worst a cover-up for the child's past disciplinary record by the school administration," the jurors wrote.
Zwerner's attorneys, Newport News School Board react to report's release
Following the report's release, attorneys for Zwerner — who is suing NNPS for $40 million — said the grand jury revealed "a systemic failure that led to the shooting."
"Most shocking is the apparent cover up of disciplinary records before and after the shooting," Attorneys Diane Toscano, Kevin Biniazan, and Jeffrey Breit wrote in a statement. "We are grateful for the work of the special grand jury and the answers they have provided this community."
Zwerner's attorneys are planning to hold a news conference Thursday at 1 p.m. to further respond to the report's findings, following a press conference from Newport News Commonwealth’s Attorney Howard Gwynn in the morning.
The Newport News School Board shared a statement Thursday morning stating safety for students and staff are top priority.
"We thank the Special Grand Jury for their Report on the investigation of the January 6, 2023 Richneck Elementary School Shooting and for their recommendations," the school board wrote in a statement. "We have implemented a number of positive changes since this incident and will continue to do so in the future."
Where to read the full Richneck report
Click here to read the Special Grand Jury's report or view the document below. ADVISORY: the document contains strong language and some disturbing details.