Teacher shot at Newport News elementary school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You know what I think? This child was probably threatening violence on a daily basis or acting out on such a regular basis that it became normal to the teachers and other school staff. That counselor and principal probably get a call about that student daily and probably just thought he was lying about it to scare people because that is what he does. That is why everyone somewhat underreacted, a threat or a violent encounter was probably just another routine day at school.

The Newport News school system is poorly run, and the school principal is at fault, too-- yet they just transferred her to another school. She allowed a child who had a violent behavioral history and drug addicted criminals for parents to be placed in a young, inexperienced teacher's classroom without an IEP or other supports because the parents wouldn't sign permission. That's when the parents should have been taken through due process/mediation. On top of that, she allowed his parents to be in the classroom daily. On the day of the shooting, that young teacher was left on her own with this extremely disturbed child. What?! No competent, caring principal would do that. These administrators should have both been fired imnediately and not permitted to resign or be placed elsewhere.

Yes, it is unbelievable what this principal allowed, even long before that day. She set up what eventually happened, was negligent to the 9th degree. Also I cannot imagine a security officer who is intimidated and cowering before a 5-6-yr-old and wouldn’t call the police on multiple reports of a gun on campus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is this payment supposed to come from the assistant principal? Or the school system, because she does not have that $$ and is now facing criminal trial next week.

Apparently the superintendent and principal were never charged. What will be the source of $$?

Principal wasn’t there that day.

School board/superintendent had sovereign immunity under the Virginia Tort Claims Act I think.

The principal was in her office.

No, that was the assistant principal who is to blame because the principal wasn’t there.

Rre you sure? I read that they we both there but that no one told the Principal what was happening. Maybe that's incorrect info?

I think you have the correct info per the reports (principal was on the premises, but not looped in). It seems the principal is a person who likes to delegate. In other words, it appears she tells people not to bother her and not to talk to her unless the school is on fire. Only it was.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You know what I think? This child was probably threatening violence on a daily basis or acting out on such a regular basis that it became normal to the teachers and other school staff. That counselor and principal probably get a call about that student daily and probably just thought he was lying about it to scare people because that is what he does. That is why everyone somewhat underreacted, a threat or a violent encounter was probably just another routine day at school.

I agree. BTDT

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You know what I think? This child was probably threatening violence on a daily basis or acting out on such a regular basis that it became normal to the teachers and other school staff. That counselor and principal probably get a call about that student daily and probably just thought he was lying about it to scare people because that is what he does. That is why everyone somewhat underreacted, a threat or a violent encounter was probably just another routine day at school.

I agree. BTDT

Not to the four teachers/counselor who tried to get action.

I've not taught in years, but I can't imagine having to ask permission to check out whether or not a child has a gun.
Gee. I had kids empty their pockets on more than one occasion.
The other kids would not have told the teacher had they not believed the kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This grand jury report has a lot of details about the case.

https://nncwa.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Full-Report-2024-opt.pdf

Who are the people on a Special Grand Jury? I don't mean their names, but who are they? Are they members of the public or people with specialized knowledge of (in this case) how a school should be run?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Her attorney is probably grasping at straws to help her.

+1

But, I'm still puzzling over the parent at the school who claimed anyone else would have been treated differently. i'm wondering if there is a family connection politically.

Was that comment about race? My experience as a white teacher is that admin is reluctant to go hard on boys of color because those statistics are disparaging for schools.

I’ve posted this before but I don’t see how race wasn’t a major factor. The majority of the student and parent population and what looks like 95% of the administration from the school itself on up is black, the teacher is white, and because it’s important, some people in the name of refusing to stigmatize wouldn’t characterize this monster as “badness” - his actual family nickname! In a family where these ahole parents were at the school daily which is preferential treatment out the ass! - but went along with the lie that his “IEP” was getting to have family with him. Virtually all kids in K and 1 would LOVE to have family visit them frequently at school. None of it was fair to anyone but those bastards. They should all be under the jail, kid included.

You could be correct, but I don't think so. I think the family must have connections--there is some reason this was "close hold" in the news. FWIW, Newport News is heavily minority as a whole.

Multiple generations of teenage parenthood--usually those aren't influential, connected families.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You know what I think? This child was probably threatening violence on a daily basis or acting out on such a regular basis that it became normal to the teachers and other school staff. That counselor and principal probably get a call about that student daily and probably just thought he was lying about it to scare people because that is what he does. That is why everyone somewhat underreacted, a threat or a violent encounter was probably just another routine day at school.

I agree. BTDT

Not to the four teachers/counselor who tried to get action.

I've not taught in years, but I can't imagine having to ask permission to check out whether or not a child has a gun.
Gee. I had kids empty their pockets on more than one occasion.
The other kids would not have told the teacher had they not believed the kid.

+1. Just shows the culture of the school.

A. My admin would never act like this - they are all very responsive and

B. I’d have refused to have the kid back without a proper aid.

[Anonymous]

So is Newport News going to pay the penalty? Or Zwerner will never see it because no way Parker has it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So is Newport News going to pay the penalty? Or Zwerner will never see it because no way Parker has it.

This has been answered several times.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So is Newport News going to pay the penalty? Or Zwerner will never see it because no way Parker has it.

This has been answered several times.

+1 https://abcnews.go.com/US/jury-awards-10-million-teacher-shot-6-year/story?id=127237252

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You know what I think? This child was probably threatening violence on a daily basis or acting out on such a regular basis that it became normal to the teachers and other school staff. That counselor and principal probably get a call about that student daily and probably just thought he was lying about it to scare people because that is what he does. That is why everyone somewhat underreacted, a threat or a violent encounter was probably just another routine day at school.

I agree. BTDT

Not to the four teachers/counselor who tried to get action.

I've not taught in years, but I can't imagine having to ask permission to check out whether or not a child has a gun.
Gee. I had kids empty their pockets on more than one occasion.
The other kids would not have told the teacher had they not believed the kid.

+1. Just shows the culture of the school.

A. My admin would never act like this - they are all very responsive and

B. I’d have refused to have the kid back without a proper aid.

+1 Totally agree with you on all points in all my years as a special ed teacher and school psychologis, I have been in many schools-- preschool, elementary, middle, and high school. I have never encountered admin with the attitude of "Dr." Ebony Parker-- Incredibly unprofessional. That school lacked caring, professional administrators. Regardless of her actions that day, the child's placement and their allowing his drug using parents to be in that classtoom every day is incompetence on full display.

[Anonymous]

This kid choked his kindergarten teacher with his bare hands in previous year. Including hitting her, hitting/spitting on the TA, punching the counselor, twisting the security officer’s arms, using profanity in the classroom, etc. No one in administration cared about any of that. The only reason he was removed was because the K teacher told Parker she would leave if he was returned to her classroom after they attempt to put him back into her class.

When she personally filed a report and delivered it to the principal Goodman and AP Parker after she was choked and had to be recurred by her teaching assistant, Parker ignored her and Goodman told her to “ Prioritize.” There have been long running patterns at this school. K teacher had to give them an ultimatum about quitting in order for them to remove that child.

When he returned the year after, he continued this behavior. It is not clear whether Abby knew about how he choked his former teacher at Richneck. Because that is attempted murder. In first grade the year of the incident, he choked another KID. He choked another student in class and NO ONE did anything about it. They didn’t care about attempted murder of the K teacher (he hated her too he hated all his teachers), and they didn’t care about attempted murder of another kid!

In fact a few weeks prior to the events his intervention team even decided to lengthen his hours at school from 3 hours to about 6 hours citing improved behaviors. Then a few days before the incident the intervention team stated that his parents do not need to accompany him anymore. The 2nd day they implemented this plan, he slammed Abby’s phone to the floor and cracked it, calling her a “b——.” He was suspended for 1 day. The day he came back from the suspension was the day she got shot.

The school failures began long before the shooting. 2 choking incidents were treated as nothing. Even then he was allowed to run behind a building during recess outside of the teachers’ sight and that’s when he threatened a kid from the lead teacher’s room, showing him the bullets. The lead teacher’s saw her student shaking and scared after recess and convinced him to tell her what happened. This is when he shared that he saw bullets and had been threatened with the gun. This is the 3rd eyewitness report that day, after 2 other kids ran to tell the reading teacher that morning. The kids were failed all around. There were 3 of them and they all made reports to a trusted adult and no one took action to remove the threat or remove the kids away from danger. A kid saw bullets and they still weren’t in crisis mode.

If an adult had found and taken away the gun before he shot Zwerner, that kid would most likely get a few days of suspension and then go right back to the classroom based on how he kept on returning after 2 attempts at choking others. It would happen at some point even if this incident had been prevented. The admins don’t care about the danger he poses to the other people. They’re not in the same room with him all day long or have to teach him. Why would they care?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So is Newport News going to pay the penalty? Or Zwerner will never see it because no way Parker has it.

Right now there are post trial motions pending and also the almost certainty of an appeal. One issue pending that we know of is whether workers’ compensation is the exclusive remedy. But I’m sure other grounds will be asserted.

And undoubtedly the insurer is looking into whether coverage exists in the event of gross negligence (as opposed to ordinary negligence, which is a claim that was barred by the sovereign immunity laws of VA).

So the answer to the question you asked is who knows if anyone will pay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You know what I think? This child was probably threatening violence on a daily basis or acting out on such a regular basis that it became normal to the teachers and other school staff. That counselor and principal probably get a call about that student daily and probably just thought he was lying about it to scare people because that is what he does. That is why everyone somewhat underreacted, a threat or a violent encounter was probably just another routine day at school.

I agree. BTDT

Not to the four teachers/counselor who tried to get action.

I've not taught in years, but I can't imagine having to ask permission to check out whether or not a child has a gun.
Gee. I had kids empty their pockets on more than one occasion.
The other kids would not have told the teacher had they not believed the kid.

+1. Just shows the culture of the school.

A. My admin would never act like this - they are all very responsive and

B. I’d have refused to have the kid back without a proper aid.

+1 Totally agree with you on all points in all my years as a special ed teacher and school psychologis, I have been in many schools-- preschool, elementary, middle, and high school. I have never encountered admin with the attitude of "Dr." Ebony Parker-- Incredibly unprofessional. That school lacked caring, professional administrators. Regardless of her actions that day, the child's placement and their allowing his drug using parents to be in that classtoom every day is incompetence on full display.

If a teacher’s safety is in the hands of admin that can be a problem. Ebony Parker’s behavior was beyond incompetent, and apparently the principal was doing God knows what but avoided being charged because she literally did nothing that day to help or to hinder.

I’ve seen good principals/assistant principals at my kids’ schools over the years. But the bad ones indeed have been very slow to lift a finger. My kid had their locker broken into twice in two weeks. The guidance counselor asked the assistant principal to put in a request to pull the video from the security camera near my kid’s locker and despite the guidance counselor and us parents reminding her weekly, the AP waited 6 weeks to make the request and then said “oops-video gets deleted from the cloud after 4 weeks.” Some APs don’t do their jobs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is this payment supposed to come from the assistant principal? Or the school system, because she does not have that $$ and is now facing criminal trial next week.

Apparently the superintendent and principal were never charged. What will be the source of $$?

Principal wasn’t there that day.

School board/superintendent had sovereign immunity under the Virginia Tort Claims Act I think.

That is correct. And both the principal and AP had sovereign immunity for simple negligence claims. They tried to bring gross negligence against the principal and school board but those claims were dismissed. The only claim allowed to go forward was the one against the AP.