Judge dismisses charges against Ebony Parker in shooting case

charges dismissed – A Virginia judge dismissed felony child abuse and disregard-for-life charges against former assistant principal Ebony Parker, saying the court does not view the situation as a crime under existing law. The ruling comes after Parker resigned following the Jan.

A courtroom question that started with one day at Richneck Elementary School ended with a legal stop sign.

On May 21, a Virginia judge dismissed criminal charges against former assistant principal Ebony Parker, more than a year after a 6-year-old boy brought a gun to class and shot first-grade teacher Abigail Zwerner on Jan. 6, 2023.

Parker, who was described in court records as responsible for students at the school, resigned from her position at Richneck Elementary School after the shooting. In March 2024, she was indicted on eight counts of felony child abuse and disregard for life.

The indictment, obtained by local media, said Parker committed “a willful act or omission in the care of such students” that was “so gross, wanton, and culpable as to show a reckless disregard for human life.”

The defense and the prosecution were set against that framing as the case moved toward trial. But during the proceedings. Circuit Court Judge Rebecca Robinson made clear the issue before her was not simply what happened that day. which she said would be for a jury. Her task, Robinson said, was deciding how the law applies.

“The court is of the legal opinion that this is not a crime,” Robinson said.

Robinson added that there was virtually “no precedent” of an administrator being criminally charged in a situation like this. She told the court that if lawmakers want criminal liability to attach in cases such as this, they would need to write specific statutory language.

“Should the legislature wish to make this a crime, they will create specific statutory language to do so,” she said.

The decision lands in a broader landscape where adults—often parents—have faced charges after children carried out shootings. In this case, the mother of the child was sentenced to two years in prison in 2023 for felony child neglect.

The criminal dismissal also follows a parallel civil battle that left a different kind of finding in the record. After Zwerner sued Parker, a jury ruled in Zwerner’s favor in November and awarded her $10 million.

Zwerner’s lawsuit said she warned Parker before the shooting that the boy was in a “violent mood” and had threatened to beat up a child. The suit also alleged that another teacher told Parker that students reported the boy had a gun in his backpack.

Zwerner was shot in the hands and chest and was hospitalized for nearly two weeks. After the shooting, she resigned from her position at the school in June 2023.

Taken together, the courtroom facts trace two different routes for responsibility: a jury’s civil determination that Zwerner was wronged, and a judge’s view in the criminal case that the law, as written, cannot reach this conduct.

For Parker, May 21 marked the end of the felony case. For Zwerner, the ruling does not erase the injury and the jury’s $10 million award, but it closes one more path that sought to translate the warning signs described in court into criminal charges.

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