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Transcript:
Hello, this is Dr. Grande. Today's question is, "Can I offer an update on the Richneck Elementary shooting and analyze the case of Ebony Parker?" Just a reminder, I'm not diagnosing anybody in this video, only speculating about what could be happening in a situation like this. If you enjoy this video, please like it, subscribe to my channel, and consider supporting me on Patreon. I will put the link to Patreon in the description for this video.
First, I'll look at the background of this case, including the timeline of the crime, then offer my analysis. I have covered this shooting several times before in other videos, but this video contains the most thorough background based on a grand jury report. This answers a lot of questions that people have had about exactly what happened and what role the assistant principal may have played.
This case takes place at the Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia, and involves a former student. The student is never named in court documents; I will refer to him as John Doe. John Doe's father was described as having a criminal record. His mother, Deja Nicole Taylor, was described as a habitual drug user.
During the 2021-2022 school year, John Doe was in kindergarten. The assistant principal was a woman named Dr. Ebony Parker. John Doe was involved in several incidents at school which caused concern. For example, his teacher Susan White reported that he would get in other kids' faces. When he was removed from class by a counselor, he would occasionally strike the counselor with his fist. John Doe bragged that he had access to marijuana in his mother's purse and that he would get high off the drug.
On September 27, 2021, the students were finishing breakfast when John Doe dumped his food in the trash and never returned. His teacher, Susan, searched for him and found him with the school security guard. When Susan attempted to grab John Doe's hand, he struck her and yelled, "No! I don't want to go back to class!" John Doe pulled down on the wrist of the security guard, which led to him being taken to see Dr. Ebony Parker again.
John Doe was led back to the class by a counselor who told him to sit down. Susan was teaching the class while seated in a chair designed for students; it was low to the ground. John Doe approached her from behind and put his forearms in front of her neck, pulling back and down in an effort to choke her. A teacher assistant noticed that Susan could not breathe and pulled John Doe off her. He was removed from the room, but within a couple of hours, the receptionist returned him to Susan's class.
Susan stepped out of the room and told the receptionist that John Doe had no business being back in class based on his behavior. The receptionist told Susan that John Doe was returned because there was no administrator available to deal with the situation. As the teacher assistant took over the class, Susan filled out an incident referral form and brought it to Ebony and the principal. After explaining what happened, Ebony did not respond to Susan at all.
Despite this, the administration decided that John Doe would be sent to a different school. Yet, on the next day, he was back at Richneck Elementary. Susan went to Ebony and explained to her that if John Doe remained in her class, she would leave. I would guess that her ultimatum occurred mostly because of the choking part. Only at this point was John Doe sent to an Early Childhood Center. In a disastrous move, John Doe was permitted to return to Richneck Elementary in the fall of 2022 as a first-grade student.
This was permitted despite the fact that he never completed kindergarten, had a reading level below his peers, and had significant behavioral problems. During the school year, the school had a new principal, but Ebony was still the assistant principal. There were two first-grade teachers, Abigail Werner and Jennifer West. John Doe was placed in Abigail's class.
It didn't take long for him to get in trouble. John Doe was physically aggressive, which included choking another student and chasing students around the playground with a belt. He also used profanity, some of which was directed at school employees. A process called the Student Success Team (SST) was initiated due to the bad behavior. This was a plan that, in theory, would help John Doe. It did not provide as many services as other types of popular plans, but there were some adjustments. For example, John Doe's hours in school were reduced; he was only supposed to be there from 9:20 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. He spent a lot of time with a reading specialist named Amy Kovak. He started taking medication for ADHD, and in a very unusual move, one of his parents stayed with him during the day at school.
The administration did not perform a background check on either parent; or they would have discovered that John Doe's father had a criminal record. On December 13, 2022, an adjustment to the SST was made. John Doe would now be in school from 11:00 a.m. until 2:30 p.m., and he was no longer required to have a parent with him. This new plan took effect on January 3, 2023.
One day later, on January 4, 6-year-old John Doe would once again find himself in trouble. After refusing to participate in a class lesson, John Doe grabbed the cell phone of his first-grade teacher, Abigail, from a table. As he stared at Abigail, he held the phone high in the air and slammed it into the floor. The screen on the phone cracked. John Doe said to Abigail, "I'm never coming back to your room again, you [blank]." The blank is a word that rhymes with "Stitch," as in "A stitch in time saves nine." John Doe also referred to other employees using the same word. His punishment was one day of suspension, meaning he would not be in school on January 5th.
On his first day back after the suspension, January 6, 2023, John Doe was brought to school by his mother. What the school employees did not know at the time was that John Doe was armed with his mother's Taurus 9mm semi-automatic pistol, which he had taken from her purse between 11:15 and 11:45 a.m. When John Doe was at lunch, he threatened to beat up a kindergarten student and stared at a security guard like he was ready to pounce. Abigail informed Ebony that John Doe was in a violent mood. Ebony did not even bother to look away from her computer monitor or acknowledge that Abigail was there. After Abigail left, Ebony told the reading specialist, Amy, that Amy could tell Abigail she could call John Doe's mother at any time to be picked up early.
As Amy was walking in the hall, two students approached her and told her that John Doe had a gun in his backpack. Amy walked into Abigail's classroom and sat next to John Doe. She asked him if he had a gun; when he responded "no," she asked him if she could look in his backpack. John Doe once again responded "no." Amy sat next to him for 45 minutes and watched him but did not search his backpack. Prior to recess, Amy reported back to Ebony that John Doe would not let his backpack be searched and was not throwing his backpack around as usual. Ebony did not show concern, ask any questions, or take any action.
Sometime between 12:20 and 12:30 p.m., Abigail saw John Doe take something out of his backpack and put it in the pocket of his hoodie. She was concerned that it might be a weapon and told Amy what she saw. At this time, Amy searched the backpack, but there was no weapon in there because John Doe had moved it to his pocket. Amy went to Ebony and told her that Abigail had seen John Doe remove an object from his backpack before recess. Ebony responded, "He has little pockets."
At recess, John Doe kept running behind a rock wall with a friend and was out of view of the teachers. Not long after 1:00 p.m., when recess ended, the first-grade teacher, Jennifer, approached the friend and asked him about the interaction with John Doe. The friend, who by this point was shaking, told her that John Doe had shown him a firearm.
Jennifer kept the friend in her classroom because he was afraid of John Doe. She called the school office and spoke to a music teacher named John Sims, who was covering while the receptionist was at lunch. Jennifer told John about what she learned. John responded that he would inform Ebony.
At 1:11 p.m., John called Jennifer back and told her that Ebony was aware of the threat but John Doe's backpack had already been searched. Jennifer repeated her concern that John Doe had a gun. At this point, Jennifer had a counselor named Ranzo Ross stop by her classroom where John Doe's friend informed him of what he had witnessed.
Ranzo went to Ebony and asked for permission to search John Doe, but Ebony refused, saying that John Doe's mother was going to pick him up soon. John Doe was sitting in Abigail's class with a handgun in his pocket, and no one stopped him.
At 1:58 p.m., while Abigail Werner was seated at a reading table in her classroom, John Doe, who was 6 feet away, pulled his mother's pistol out of his pocket. There was a round in the chamber and seven rounds in the magazine. He pointed the weapon at Abigail and fired one time.
The bullet passed through Abigail's left hand and into her upper chest. As Abigail saw a pool of blood forming below her, John Doe stared at her. There was no change in his facial expression. John Doe attempted to fire the weapon again, but it did not discharge. The grand jury report didn't explain why the gun failed to fire the second time, only that it jammed. My guess is that John Doe had a very weak grip on the gun, therefore it failed to cycle properly. Semi-automatic pistols are not designed to be fired by six-year-olds.
Despite being seriously wounded, Abigail escorted her 18 students out of the classroom. Amy Kovak heard the gunshot and rushed into the classroom. She pulled John Doe away from the gun, which was on the floor, and wrapped her body around him. He told Amy, "I shot that blank dead." Right after the shooting, a woman ran into the school office and said, "Someone's been shot."
Ebony Parker, who had ignored four warnings that John Doe had a gun, immediately ran into her office and closed the door. The receptionist was the one who called 911 and declared a lockdown over the PA system. Ebony did not open her office door, even after a visitor knocked and said that a child was out in the main room. Ebony remained in there until the police arrived, which definitely decreased her chances of winning the "Courageous Assistant Principal of the Year" award.
The police arrived on the scene and secured the firearm. John Doe punched Amy in the face as the police were standing there. He told the police that he retrieved the pistol from his mother's purse, the same place where he obtained marijuana.
Abigail was transported to a hospital and survived. She would go on to file a $40 million lawsuit. John Doe was sent to a mental health treatment facility and will never be charged with a crime. His mother, Deja Taylor, pleaded guilty to illegally obtaining and possessing a firearm and making a false statement during the purchase of a firearm. She received 21 months in federal prison. Deja also pleaded guilty to felony child neglect and was sentenced to 2 years in state prison. That sentence will be waiting for her when she finishes her time in federal prison.
In April 2024, Dr. Ebony Parker was indicted on eight counts of gross wanton or reckless care for a child. The state argued that in her role as assistant principal, Ebony failed to protect the students. She is facing up to 5 years in prison for each count.
Now moving to my analysis. The state's decision to charge Ebony Parker continues a trend of holding adults criminally responsible for offenses committed by children. Some people look at this and say it's a bridge too far; others view the situation differently, believing that it's about time that adults who fail to prevent these types of crimes are held responsible.
This brings me to the question, is Ebony Parker guilty? Let's take a look at the evidence both for and against the idea that she is guilty. Starting with the inculpatory factors: Ebony was in a position of authority at Richneck Elementary School; it was her job to keep the students safe. Ebony knew about the past disciplinary problems of John Doe and was an active participant in the decisions that led him to being in the classroom. On four occasions, Ebony was warned that John Doe may have a gun, yet she took no action. The people who warned her were credible school professionals. Ebony would routinely give candy to students who were sent to her office for violent behavior. She had a reputation for downplaying concerns expressed by teachers and demeaning teachers.
After the shooting, Ebony went into her office and allegedly wouldn't even open the door for a student who was in the main room. Moving to the exculpatory factors: the people who warned Ebony about John Doe having a gun were adults who knew how to call the police. Given the extenuating circumstances, they should have notified the police and searched John Doe even without permission. That's pretty much it for exculpatory factors.
When considering the evidence, do I think that Ebony Parker is guilty? Yes, in my opinion, she is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. For the most part, I dislike the idea of criminal charges being filed against people who fail to do something, but in this case, the behavior is so egregious it rises to a criminal level. How lazy, jaded, and arrogant must a school administrator be to disregard warnings that a student has a gun? Was this elementary school so dangerous that Ebony was notified about students carrying guns every day? Was this news boring to her? If a gun was not frightening, what type of weapon would have captured her attention? There's the sense that a staff member could have told her that a student had a flamethrower, and Ebony would have said something like, "Well, it is kind of cold in here today. A little heat wouldn't be so bad."
As terrifying as Ebony's behavior was, the most disturbing part of this case was the behavior of John Doe. He was so cold and callous that his facial expression did not change even as he tried to murder his teacher. He wasn't frightened by the gunshot; other students were extremely frightened and shaking, which are normal responses. John Doe's only source of concern was his inability to shoot his teacher again.
Now moving to my final thoughts. The friend who was shown the gun by John Doe has had a rough time. He is receiving mental health counseling due to feelings of guilt. The friend believes that the situation was his fault. After the shooting, the friend told the first-grade teacher, Jennifer, "I told you, I tried to keep you safe. I told you." Here we have a situation where a child took on a burden that wasn't even his, as the assistant principal did not accept any responsibility for what happened.
At least someone had common sense, courage, and compassion. It's too bad these characteristics were absent among school administrators. Those are my thoughts on the case of Ebony Parker. Please put any opinions and thoughts in the comment section; they always generate an interesting dialogue. As always, I hope you found my analysis of this topic to be informative. Thanks for watching!
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