Mother of Virginia first-grader who shot his teacher faces criminal charges of child neglect, listed as fugitive

Deja Nicole Taylor, 25, was indicted by a grand jury on Monday in Newport News, Virginia stemming from the actions of her 6-year-old son who shot his teacher, Abby Zwerner, 25, in the chest during class at Richneck Elementary School in January.

Taylor faces felony and misdemeanor charges of child neglect and recklessly leaving a firearm so as to endanger a child, reports the NY Post. The Virginia Courts Case Information database for Newport News Circuit Court lists Taylor as having a "fugitive" status.



The first-grader was found to have deliberately shot his teacher, firing one round which pierced her hand and struck her chest, while she taught her first grade class at Richneck Elementary. 

After being shot, the young teacher sought to protect her terrified students screaming for them to run to safety, hustling them out of the classroom despite sustaining a bullet to the chest, which remains lodged in her body. 

Newport News Commonweath Attorney’s Office has stated that Richneck Elementary School administrators may also be held accountable in the case as being criminally responsible for the actions of the boy who reportedly had a history of acting out violently. 

On Monday, the teacher, who survived the life threatening gunshot, filed a $40 million dollar lawsuit against the schoolboard contending that school administrators had ignored multiple reports and warnings from herself as well as other faculty members over the hours leading up to the attack indicating the 6-year-old had brought a gun to school that day.

Also on that day, Zwerner informed the assistant principal, George Parker, that the boy had been displaying violent tendancies that day and had threatened to physically attack a kindergartner during lunch.

The boy had been suspended two days prior to shooting his teacher for smashing her phone in a violent outburst. When the boy returned to Zwerner’s first grade class after the suspension, he shot her.

Directly after filing the suit an attorney for Zwerner told The Today Show, "We know for a fact that there were at least three opportunities for them to stop this from happening."

Three administrators have been named as defendants in the lawsuit so far: Ebony Parker, the school’s former assistant principal, George Parker III, the former school superintendent, and Brianna Foster Newton, the former principal.

In a statement following the shooting, the superintendent, now named as a defendant  in the lawsuit, claimed the school did have a metal detector but that it was not used every day or on every student.
 

In the week following the shooting of Zwerner, the Newport News school board held a three-hour school board meeting  dedicated soley to public comment.

Doug Marmon, whose children attended the school, suggested the placement of two security officers at each elementary school in the district. He also voiced the necessity of the school system to change how it addresses student behavior, which he said has “proven ineffective."

“Students need to be held accountable for their actions, regardless of age or circumstances — not transferred to another school or placed in a different classroom,” he said.
“Equality in our schools should not include the suffering of the majority for the lack of discipline for the few."

The Virginia shooting is one of many shootings in schools across the nation that has sparked heated debate between anti-gun activists and those who note the lack of security in schools as the problem that leaves our most vulnerable demographic with no protection.