She has not responded to multiple attempts to reach her over the past year.

Her attorney in the criminal case, Curtis Rogers, could not be immediately reached for comment Tuesday. According to court records, prosecutors are recommending that Parker could be released if she posts a $4,000 secured bond and surrenders her passports.

The 6-year-old’s mother, Deja Nicole Taylor, 26, was charged with felony child neglect after the boy took her gun to school that morning. She pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two years behind bars.

She also has been sentenced in federal court to 21 months for lying on a gun purchasing form about her marijuana usage and having both a gun and the drug at the same time.

Last May, Newport News Commonwealth’s Attorney Howard Gwynn asked for a special grand jury to probe whether any “actions or omissions” by school system employees also helped lead to the shooting.

It’s unclear if the grand jury is expected to charge anyone else.

It also wasn’t immediately clear how the grand jury determined that Parker should face eight counts of child neglect. There were about 18 students in Zwerner’s classroom that day, police said at a news conference shortly after the shooting, and many more in the school building.

Parker is one of the main defendants in Zwerner’s lawsuit against Newport News Public Schools.

According to the teacher’s suit, Zwerner approached Parker after 11:15 a.m. to say that the 6-year-old was “in a violent mood” and “threatened to beat up a kindergartner during lunchtime.”

But Parker “had no response … refusing even to look up at (Zwerner) when she expressed her concerns,” the complaint asserts.

...continued

©2024 Daily Press. Visit at dailypress.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.