Transcription
Good morning, members of the jury. In every school, there are spoken and unspoken promises that teachers trust administrators to keep. One of those promises is that when teachers sound an alarm that something is wrong, administrators will answer. In this case, on January 6, 2023, those promises were broken. And those promises were not broken by chance or confusion, but through a series of deliberate decisions that were made inside Richneck Elementary School, a school right down the street from us, 15 miles in our own community.
And you're going to hear about the defendant, Dr. Ebony Parker. She was the assistant principal on January 6, 2023 at Richneck Elementary School. Now, members of a jury, an assistant principal is the second in command. She's a frontline administrator. And as a frontline administrator, the assistant principal directly interfaces with the teachers every day. Those teachers go to her for support. They go to her when there's problems in the classroom. And those teachers go to her when there are safety concerns. And you don't have to trust me on that. You're going to see during this trial copies of the school handbook, the crisis management plan, which governs these responsibilities, and it also governs the relationship between administrators and teachers. As an assistant principal, you have the authority to search a student, to remove a student from the classroom, to notify the principal, to contact law enforcement. One of the main issues of a frontline administrator is safety. We've all heard safety first. Members of the jury, this is the job of an assistant principal. The job that Dr. Parker accepted with those spoken and unspoken promises, with that authority that she undertook as the assistant principal.
Now, let's talk about January 6, 2023. It's the first week back to school after the holiday. Kids are excited. There's excitement in the air. It's a Friday. There's about a hundred kids that are filing in to Richneck Elementary School at about 9:00 that morning. 20 of whom are headed down to room 11. Room 11 is the classroom that Miss Swer was the first grade teacher of. Now, it's January. It's cold out. These kids have on hoodies, jackets, and backpacks. And in those backpacks are things that you would expect to find. Books, pencils, calculators.
About an hour and a half later, at 10:30 a.m., another student, a six-year-old, who we're going to refer to as JT, comes to school. His mom drops him off. You may be wondering why JT got to school at 10:30 that day. You'll probably hear that he was on a modified schedule because JT had some behavior problems. He was also coming back to school that day from a suspension where two days prior JT had a violent episode where he took Miss Warner's phone and slammed it, cracking the screen protector. So, this is his first day back from the suspension as well. JT too has on his backpack. He checks into the office. In JT's backpack are the usual things. Books, a calculator, pencils, but you're going to hear that JT also had a loaded gun.
So JT goes down to room 11, which is right down the hall from the main office where the assistant principal's office is, where Dr. Parker spent the majority of her day sitting at her desk. You're also going to hear that it was makeup testing day. Hosing council may say that's an important day in the life of an administrator and it is. They're doing makeup testing. It's about 30 students that day from grades 3 through 5 who are making up the testing. A very small percent.
Now it's about 11:30, 11:40, about an hour's gone by. Misser goes into Dr. Parker's office. She's sitting at her desk. And Miss Warner says to Dr. Parker, "JT seems off today and in a violent mood. You just threatened to beat up a kindergartener in the cafeteria." Does Dr. Parker get up from her desk and go down and check on JT? No. Does Dr. Parker look up and address Miss Warner and her concerns? No. Dr. Parker does not even look up.
So now some more time's gone by. It's a little after 12. You're going to hear that another teacher comes into Dr. Parker's office, Amy Kobach. Miss Kovac comes into the office with an alarming report and says after she's been in JT's class, spoken to some of the students in JT's class, Miss Kovac thinks that JT may have a gun in his backpack. So, does Dr. Parker remove the child from the class? No. Does she notify the next in the chain of command, the principal? No. Does she contact law enforcement? No. Does she search the backpack herself? No. Miss Kobach says she's going to go search the backpack when they go to recess.
Now, about maybe 20 more minutes or so go by. Miss Kovac comes back to Dr. Parker's office where Dr. Parker is still sitting at her desk. And now Dr. Now, Miss Kobach says to Dr. Parker, "I checked the backpack, there was no gun, right?" However, in her next breath, Miss Kobach says, "Miss Sworner thinks that the child JT took something out of his backpack, the gun, and put it in his pocket." Does Dr. Parker then decide to remove the child from recess while he's out there with all the other students? No. Does Dr. Parker search the child? No. She doesn't notify the principal. Instead, Dr. Parker downplays the report and she says to Miss Kobach, "He has little pockets."
So, Miss Kovac leaves. Well, Miss Kobach's one of the proctors that day for the makeup testing. So, she goes out to recess and comes back to see Dr. Parker one more time. This is Miss Kobach's third time in the office and says, "I wanted to let you know he has on a jacket and I'm going for the testing." So, it starts at 1:00 and she'll be back for the testing.
Now, some more time goes by. It's about 1:40. Two additional staff members go to Dr. Parker. One goes into Dr. Parker's office and said he just got off the phone with another first grade teacher. He wants to know, "Did you search JT?" Dr. Parker says, "Yes." The book, the backpack's been searched. He walks out. Shortly behind him comes in the guidance counselor and he says to Dr. Parker after speaking to others and being concerned that a student actually saw bullets or a gun in JT's pocket says, "Can I search JT?"
So, not only does Dr. Parker not leave her office and go down the hallway and take JT out of that classroom. Not only does she not search him, she doesn't call the police, but she makes the decision to say to the guidance counselor, "No, you cannot search the boy." She says, "Just wait. His mother will be here soon. Let her know." The mother gets there about 2:30. This is about 1:40 p.m. We've had a day now of warnings. Four warnings.
So now the time is 158. Bang. Everybody nearby hears the sound of a gunshot. JT has now taken that firearm, pointed it at Abby, and pulled the trigger. You're going to hear that that bullet went into her hand, her left hand, through her hand, into the side of her left chest where it still lies today cuz it's too dangerous to remove. You're going to hear how January 6, 2023 changed Aby's life forever. She has undergone six surgeries and still has one coming up to remove a plate out of her hand. You'll be able to see her hands, the difference. She still does not have full range of motion in her left hand. And you're going to hear from those doctors and they're going to tell you about that impact from that gunshot that day.
You're going to hear from her sister Hannah and her mother Julie and how they had to give Abby around the clock care for months. Hannah quit her job. Hannah moved in with Abby so she could take care of her around the clock because jurors Abby could not open food containers to feed herself. She couldn't open bottles. She wasn't able to shower. She couldn't hold a brush for her hair or wash her hair. She wasn't able to pull her pants up. She wasn't able to button her clothes. She wasn't able to drive. Abby was 25 years old on January 6, 2023. She had just started her career as a teacher. She was pouring into her students. She was excited about what the future held. In your 20s, usually some of the best times of your life. Aby's going to tell you how they've been the darkest times of her life, how the pain and trauma do not easily fade, and what she's been dealing with.
And members of the jury, [snorts] you're going to hear from an expert who's going to tell you that administrators are trained how to deal with the report of a gun in school and how ignoring multiple credible reports of a firearm not only violates protocol, but it puts all lives in danger that were in that school. You'll hear from all the teachers that went to Dr. Parker on that day, the four different staff members and teachers with their concerns that JT has a gun. And you're going to hear from the defense that you should excuse Dr. Parker's conduct on that day. You're going to hear Dr. Parker was part of a team of teachers prior to January 6th that were working with JT to try to help correct some of those classroom behavior problems he had. And that's true. You're going to hear that it was a six-year-old child. Who would think a six-year-old's going to bring a gun to school and shoot their teacher? Members of the jury, it's Dr. Parker's job to believe that that is possible. It's her job to investigate it and to get to the very bottom of it and to hope that that's not possible, but her job is to address it. You're going to hear Abby could have done more. But when you hear those arguments, I ask you to ask yourself, why did four different people go to Dr. Parker that day with this concern. Four different staff, four different teachers total went to Dr. Parker because Dr. Parker was the assistant principal. Dr. Parker was in the chain of command. Dr. Parker had the authority to search a student. She had the authority to remove a student from the classroom. She had the authority to call the law enforcement. Four opportunities to take decisive action and do that.
So, jurors, why are you here today? You're [snorts] here because we're asking you to enforce a promise. A promise that Dr. Parker broke and a life has been shattered because of it. Only you have the power to decide how to make up that promise. And only you have that decide power to decide what are those harms and losses that Abby has suffered. And it's important jurors that you don't have to find that Dr. Parker is not a good person. We're not even suggesting that. We're asking you to look at the decisions and choices that Dr. Parker made that day because she made bad decisions and choices that day. But you can find that Dr. Parker is a good person. But you can also find that Dr. Parker breached her duty of care to the plaintiff on January 6th, 2023.
And I ask that you please listen carefully to each witness that you're going to hear from over the next two weeks. You're going to get to watch and hear testimony about what happened in that school on January 6th. You're going to see documents of handbooks of protocol. You're going to hear from doctors. You're going to hear from experts. So, please pay close attention to all of that. And also notice each time Dr. Parker had a decision to make, [clears throat] what that decision was that Dr. Parker made how many opportunities Dr. Parker had to prevent what happened on January 6th. And I'm confident at the end of this, you'll have a clear picture of what happened and how that tragedy on January 6 happened minute by minute, decision by decision. And I'm going to ask at the end of this trial, we're asking that you come back with a verdict for our client. Abby. >> Thank you so much for your attention this morning. I appreciate it. >> Approach. >> Sure. >> You want this on the record? Um, >> I think so. Just Okay. It's okay. It's a quick.