United States – A 6-year-old boy who shot and hurt his teacher last year during the incident in Virginia had a record of violent outbursts in school, including the choking of another teacher that led to his early expulsion from kindergarten, the report reveals.
Background of the Incident
The boy’s misconduct at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, VA, which has been thoroughly detailed in the 30-page special grand jury report, includes, among other things, physical violence towards other students and staff at the school, as reported by Reuters.
The report particularly singled out a number of inadequacies on the part of the school administrators, especially the assistant principal Ebony Parker, who was responsible for the lack of handling of the child’s disciplinary problems and the information of the classmate’s parents.
The 11-person jury opined that “shocking” negligence and incompetence on the part of those who voluntarily resigned is the basis of the charges.
Charges and Legal Proceedings
The grand jury delivered a true bill of indictment to the court where it listed eight counts of felony child neglect, one for each bullet from the handgun hidden in the backpack that Parker brought to school from home on Jan. 6, 2023, and used to shoot first-grade teacher Abigail Zwerner.
The stakes were high, with up to five years in jail for each count the shooter could be convicted of. The unseal was done on Tuesday, and it is a case that has gained a lot of national attention, given the shooter’s age. It is rare, if not never, that any school administrators get caught through criminal prosecution in relation to gun violence in schools.
The jury concluded that the management, on four different occasions, had failed to respond when students and faculty members had informed them that Jesse was believed to have had a gun in school. At one time, she rejected the backpack inspection, according to the report.
The exact charges were heard in court cases that Zwerner brought against school officials last April.
Parker, who could not immediately be reached on Wednesday for comment, was not available for comment at the moment. Conversely, according to the Washington Post, however, her lawyer has disclaimed the charges in Zwerner’s civil complaint.
‘BAFFLING DECISIONS’
The grand jury criticized school administrators mainly for the series of missed chances and confusing decisions, which, in the end, failed to ensure the involvement of the boy in the behavior and emotional disturbance approved programs.
For instance, one of the events took place in kindergarten, and it was about 15 months prior to the shooting. The boy walked up behind his teacher and wrapped his arms around her neck, hence choking her until a teacher’s assistant managed to break his grip.
The investigation’s outcomes resulted in the boy being later expelled and accepted to return the following academic year at Richneck. The report said the same disruptive behavior was the case as before. One mother said her son was choked by the same boy twice, and none of the teachers told her the boy had been disciplined for similar troubles before.
The report also said the numerous points of security risk it observed might have caused the death toll to be greater if the boy’s gun had not jammed accidentally after the first shot.
Zwerner was wounded by a single round that entered her hand and the chest eventually when she was reading at the table and was in front of 15 other six and 7-year-olds. She manages to get out of her classroom and gather the children before she staggers to the school office and faints.
Jury’s Report
The report developed by a grand jury alleges that a teacher who ran into the class isolated the boy from the weapon and restrained him until police arrived, as reported by Reuters.
The prosecutors said last year that they would not seek to slap the boy with charges either. In a state court, her mother, Deja Taylor, pleaded guilty to child neglect, where she got a two-year term, but then, in a separate federal case, she was served a two-year term in gun charges.
Taylor is prohibited to have any engagement with her son until he turns 18. The brother was left in the custody of his grandparents.
The grand jury report exonerated Briana Foster, the present principal of the school, from criminal responsibility, finding that she was preoccupied with a number of meetings on the day of the shooting and was not kept in the know about the situation.