Virginia Elementary School Shooting: Special Grand Jury Report Reveals Avoidable Situation and Security Lapses

TFD – Discover the shocking revelations from the special grand jury report on the Virginia elementary school shooting. Uncover the avoidable situation and security lapses that led to indictments, including insights into the former assistant principal’s actions.

A special grand jury declared in a recently revealed report that the 2023 Virginia elementary school massacre, in which a 6-year-old youngster shot his teacher, was a “avoidable situation,” noting “poor decisions” in the run-up to the incident.

The 11-member panel investigating the January 6, 2023, shooting at Richneck Elementary school in Newport News also found a “shocking” lack of response by the former assistant principal despite several warnings about the child, the report says.

The March 11 report, which was made public on Wednesday, outlines a number of security lapses and the child’s “many behavioral problems” before to the shooting that left first-grade teacher Abigail Zwerner critically injured.

The school’s former assistant principal, Ebony Parker, resigned about three weeks after the shooting and was indicted and charged with eight counts of child abuse and disregard for life by a special grand jury last month, according to court records.

According to the special grand jury findings, Parker “neglected to take any action upon receiving” four reports on the student’s possession of a pistol on the day of the shooting. The reports described the student as “possibly dangerous.”

According to the study, Parker and other officials were also “responsible for making poor decisions regarding the child” before the shooting day and disregarded “his teachers concerns.”

“The child was placed in Ms. Zwerner’s first grade class, which had 23 students enrolled, despite the fact that the child had enough documented substantial behavioral problems known by Dr. Parker to have him physically removed from the school the year prior.”

And despite warnings on the day of the shooting – including from “three different students over the course of two hours” – that the student had a firearm, the 6-year-old was not searched or removed from class, according to the report.

The panel also pointed out that there was evidence missing from the case, including the child’s disciplinary records, and recommended that an investigation be conducted to “determine if she should be criminally charged with obstruction of justice” against another supervisor of the school district.

According to the investigation, “at best, there was a complete lack of competence in the way things were run and recorded, and at worst, the school administration covered up the child’s previous disciplinary record.”

TFD has requested comments from the lawyer for Ebony Parker as well as Richneck Elementary Public School. When TFD contacted Newport News Public Schools, they declined to respond.

The teacher, Zwerner, filed a $40 million lawsuit last year against the school board and administrators alleging they ignored warning signs and were aware of the student’s “history of random violence,” TFD previously reported.

Attorneys for Zwerner told CNN that “the grand jury report reveals a systemic failure that led to the shooting of Abby Zwerner.” The apparent concealment of disciplinary records from both before and after the incident is the most startling. We appreciate the special grand jury’s efforts and the information they were able to present this community.

We will be updating this story as it develops.