A Virginia circuit court judge threw out every felony charge against the former assistant principal accused of ignoring warnings before a six-year-old student shot his first-grade teacher at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, ruling that if the conduct at issue is meant to be a crime, the state legislature needs to say so.
Circuit Court Judge Rebecca Robinson granted the defense motion to strike in full, ending all eight counts of felony child abuse and endangerment against Ebony Parker. The dismissal came Thursday, just days after the trial opened with testimony from the teacher who took a bullet in her own classroom.
Parker had faced up to five years in prison on each count. Instead, she walked out of the courtroom with no criminal record in the case, and the teacher, Abigail Zwerner, was left with a $10 million civil verdict but no criminal accountability from anyone in the school's chain of command.
In January 2023, a six-year-old student at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News opened fire on Zwerner during class. The bullet traveled through her left hand and into her chest. She survived.
Zwerner, who was the first witness called when Parker's trial began on Tuesday, May 19, told jurors the student had already displayed aggressive behavior earlier that week. In one incident, the child grabbed and smashed her cellphone during reading-group time. She described the boy as "very defiant" and said he had a "challenging face."
Then came the moment itself. Zwerner recalled it in plain, devastating terms:
"I saw this student looking at me. I looked over, the gun was pointed right at me, and then I was shot."
The prosecution called 16 witnesses in all before the defense moved to strike. The charges alleged Parker "did commit a willful act or omission in the care of such students, in a manner so gross, wanton and culpable as to show a reckless disregard for human life."
Judge Robinson did not mince words about the legal gap she saw. Rather than let the case go to the jury, she ended it from the bench. Her ruling rested on a striking conclusion: whatever Parker did or failed to do, current Virginia law does not make it a felony.
"If [Parker's actions] are meant to amount to a crime, the legislature will need to codify it."
Robinson then made the formal declaration:
"Therefore, I do grant the defense motion to strike in full on all counts, all eight counts of felony child abuse and endangerment."
Parker put her head down on the defendant's table and appeared to be sobbing after the ruling came down. Fox News Digital reached out to Parker's attorney Curtis Rogers, to the law firm Breit Biniazan, and to prosecutor Josh Jenkins for comment. No responses were reported.
The core facts of this case were never really in dispute. A six-year-old brought a gun to school. A teacher got shot. Testimony and court documents described warnings that preceded the shooting. Zwerner herself told the jury about the child's escalating behavior in the days before he pulled the trigger.
The question was whether the school official charged with keeping children safe could be held criminally liable for failing to act on those warnings. The answer, at least in this courtroom, was no.
That outcome sits uneasily next to the civil case. In November 2025, a jury awarded Zwerner $10 million in damages after a trial against Newport News Public Schools. That lawsuit accused the school division and its administrators of gross negligence, alleging they ignored multiple warnings and failed to prevent the shooting.
So a civil jury found the school system grossly negligent. But a criminal court found the law too thin to hold any individual administrator accountable. The school district paid, with taxpayer money. Parker paid nothing.
Judge Robinson's reasoning may be legally sound. Judges are bound by statutes as written, not by public outrage. If Virginia's criminal code does not clearly cover an assistant principal who allegedly ignores repeated warnings about a dangerous child, that is a problem for the General Assembly, not the bench.
But the ruling exposes a gap that should trouble every parent with a child in a Virginia public school. If a teacher can testify under oath that she warned administrators about a violent student, and that student then shot her, and no one faces criminal consequences, what exactly is the deterrent?
Civil liability hits the institution. Criminal liability hits the individual. One of those sends a message to every school administrator in the state. The other just raises insurance premiums.
The prosecution tried to make the case that Parker's inaction rose to the level of reckless disregard for human life. Sixteen witnesses took the stand. The judge decided the evidence did not meet the statutory bar. That leaves Virginia lawmakers with a straightforward question: Should it?
Several questions hang over this case. The legal status and any court outcome for the six-year-old student who fired the gun remain unclear from the available record. The specific statutes under which Parker was charged have not been publicly detailed in the reporting. And neither the prosecution nor the defense offered public comment after the ruling.
Zwerner, for her part, has her $10 million verdict. She also has a bullet wound that will never fully heal and a courtroom memory of describing the moment a child aimed a gun at her chest.
Parker has her freedom. The school district has its liability. And Virginia has a hole in its criminal code that a judge just pointed out in open court.
When the law cannot hold anyone personally accountable for ignoring clear danger signs in a building full of children, the law needs fixing, and the people who write it are out of excuses.
