The mom of the 6-year-old boy, Deja Taylor, was sentenced in December to 2 years in jail after pleading responsible to felony baby 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 in opposition to Ms. Parker was additionally unsealed on the day that two mother and father in Michigan have been sentenced to 10 to fifteen years in jail for failing to forestall their son from killing 4 fellow college students within the deadliest faculty taking pictures in that state’s historical past.
The previous assistant principal, who resigned after the taking pictures at Richneck Elementary College in Newport Information, Va., is amongst a number of faculty workers listed as defendants in a lawsuit filed final yr by the trainer, Abigail Zwerner, who was significantly injured on Jan. 6, 2023, when the boy pulled out the gun in the course of 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 line 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 lecturers, with which all of the defendants have been acquainted, and had been faraway from kindergarten within the 2021-2022 faculty yr “after he strangled and choked a trainer.” He was allowed to return within the fall of 2022, however was positioned on a modified schedule, which required considered one of his mother and father to accompany him in school, although neither have been current on the day of the taking pictures.
Academics’ considerations along with his habits have been often dropped at the eye of college directors, however have been “all the time dismissed,” based on the civil case. On the morning of the taking pictures, Ms. Zwerner advised Ms. Parker that the boy was in a “violent temper” and had threatened to beat up a youthful baby, however Ms. Parker had “no response,” based on the go well with.
Throughout recess, Ms. Zwerner grew to become suspicious that the boy might need a weapon, and knowledgeable two different faculty workers, based on 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 mentioned.
