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NEWPORT NEWS — An arrangement in which relatives stayed in school with a problematic child was scrapped days before the 6-year-old shot his teacher in class three months ago.
The unusual protocol began last fall when the first-grade boy was displaying behavioral issues at Richneck Elementary School, a lawyer for the boy’s mother said Friday.
But the practice had been called off when school resumed Jan. 3 following Christmas break, attorney James Ellenson said after a court hearing Friday.
The attorney said school administrators determined the boy’s relatives — typically his mother and great-grandfather — no longer needed to accompany him to school.
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“I guess they thought there was enough progress that had been made,” Ellenson said later in the day. “But I guess they were wrong.”
On Jan. 4, the day after classes resumed, the 6-year-old boy “slammed” his teacher Abigail Zwerner’s cellphone, breaking it and leading to a one-day suspension, according to a recent lawsuit by Zwerner’s attorneys.
Then, as the boy sat at his desk Jan. 6, he pulled a gun out of his front hoodie pocket, pointed it at Zwerner — sitting at a table less than 10 feet away — and fired a single round.
The bullet went through the teacher’s left hand, which she held up as the boy opened fire, and then struck her in the upper chest and shoulder, where it remains in fragments today.
The shooting of a teacher by her 6-year-old student garnered headlines across the country and the world.
The boy’s mother, Deja Nicole Taylor, 25, of Newport News, was indicted by a grand jury this week on felony and misdemeanor counts, with prosecutors alleging she “recklessly” allowed her child to gain access to her loaded gun.
She was arraigned in Circuit Court on Friday in a hearing that lasted less than five minutes.
Judge Christopher Papile advised Taylor of the charges against her, confirmed that Ellenson would be representing her, and set a trial date for Aug. 15.
After the hearing, Ellenson said he would be asking for a trial before a judge rather than a jury.
He said there’s lots of “mitigating evidence” in this case — evidence that could reduce Taylor’s culpability — that a judge is more likely to allow if there are no jurors.
“Judges are more lax in a bench trial than in a jury trial,” he said, saying they are less strict on evidentiary rules if they are hearing the case themselves.
That evidence, Ellenson said, includes Taylor’s depression.
She had several miscarriages over the years, he said, including a severe one in January 2022 that led to a multiday hospital stay and postpartum depression.
“It was a big deal,” Ellenson said, saying Taylor’s depression “heightened in 2022.”
Taylor has only one child, with Ellenson making a point that all her pregnancies were from the same father. “She’s in a committed relationship,” he said.
Taylor, who has no criminal record, checked herself into the city jail on Thursday and was released about 2½ hours later on a $5,000 bond.
She faces up to six years on the pending charges — five on a felony child neglect count and one year on the misdemeanor count of recklessly allowing a child access to a loaded firearm.
But Ellenson said he hopes prosecutors will agree to a plea deal that keeps his client out of prison.
“I don’t think jail is the answer right now,” he said. “I’m hoping to work something out ... Something that’s fair. Something that’s just.”
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Taylor’s grandfather had his arm around his granddaughter’s shoulder as they left the arraignment hearing with Ellenson.
The attorney said later that the grandfather, Calvin Taylor, is a retired military police officer for the U.S. Army who served in Afghanistan. He’s also a former Virginia Department of Corrections employee.
“This is a good family,” Ellenson said.
Newport News Police have said the gun used in the shooting, a Taurus 9mm, was legally purchased by the boy’s mother in York County.
Deja Taylor maintains she kept the gun secured by a trigger lock, a mechanism that prevents the weapon from being fired, and that she stored it out of reach in a bedroom closet.
Ellenson said Taylor has “no idea” how the boy gained access to the gun on the day of the shooting.
Peter Dujardin, 757-247-4749, pdujardin@dailypress.com