The mom of the 6-year-old boy, Deja Taylor, was sentenced in December to 2 years in jail after pleading responsible to felony little one neglect. Earlier, she was sentenced to 21 months after pleading responsible to utilizing marijuana whereas proudly owning a firearm and making false statements about drug use. The indictment towards Ms. Parker was additionally unsealed on the day that two dad and mom in Michigan had been sentenced to 10 to fifteen years in jail for failing to forestall their son from killing 4 fellow college students within the deadliest college capturing in that state’s historical past.
The previous assistant principal, who resigned after the capturing at Richneck Elementary College in Newport Information, Va., is amongst a number of college workers listed as defendants in a lawsuit filed final yr by the instructor, Abigail Zwerner, who was severely injured on Jan. 6, 2023, when the boy pulled out the gun through the center of a day class, aimed it at her and fired. A single bullet handed via Ms. Zwerner’s hand and struck her chest.
In accordance with the go well with, which seeks $40 million, the boy had “a historical past of random violence,” together with assaults on college students and academics, with which all of the defendants had been acquainted, and had been faraway from kindergarten within the 2021-2022 college yr “after he strangled and choked a instructor.” He was allowed to return within the fall of 2022, however was positioned on a modified schedule, which required considered one of his dad and mom to accompany him in school, although neither had been current on the day of the capturing.
Academics’ issues together with his habits had been usually dropped at the eye of faculty directors, however had been “at all times dismissed,” in accordance with the civil case. On the morning of the capturing, Ms. Zwerner advised Ms. Parker that the boy was in a “violent temper” and had threatened to beat up a youthful little one, however Ms. Parker had “no response,” in accordance with the go well with.
Throughout recess, Ms. Zwerner grew to become suspicious that the boy may need a weapon, and knowledgeable two different college workers, in accordance with the go well with. One among them searched his backpack however didn’t discover something, and after recess, advised Ms. Parker that, although she couldn’t discover something, the boy had claimed to have a gun, and that Ms. Zwerner had seen him take away one thing from his backpack, legal professionals within the civil case stated.
