The Broward school district had no responsibility to warn students and faculty at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School of the danger posed by a former student who later carried out a deadly rampage in the school, a judge ruled Monday.
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“The District had no control over Cruz,” the judge ruled. “They did not have custody over him. He was not a student in the system and had not been for over a year. In fact, he was refused access to the campus once he left school. Nor did the district have pre-knowledge of a definitive threat by Cruz.”
Parkland parents lose in suit over school shooting – South Florida Sun-Sentinel (sun-sentinel.com)
I have to agree with the judge on this one. You can blame the school district for several things such the lack of hardening of schools even when a nice budget was given, but they cannot and should not be “in control” of anybody who is no longer in their purview and control. And that is a good thing. Why would a school district keep track and control the actions of people no longer under their purview?
This may be also a decision that I bet will be quoted when parents realize Teaching at a Distance actually taught nothing to the kids other than pig out on Cheetos and play on Zoom and decided to sue the schools because little Debbie can’t spell or read cursive.
How does the so-called ‘Promise Program’ play into this, though?
Although yeah, if he wasn’t a student and hadn’t been one for a year, it’s a bit of a stretch to accuse them of malfeasance, especially if the PP had been mandating their actions.
IANAL warning, but I think the lawsuit was against the wrong entity, and for the wrong reasons.
The school district has numerous failures on their hands in this situation. Ignoring obvious dangerous behavior, keeping a kid in class when he should have been in prison, etc… But, holding them responsible for the shooting is too much.
If the lawsuit was about the failure of their programs, if negligence could be proven in how they carried out the promise program, the Parkland parents might have won some small victory. They may have gotten an admission of responsibility from the school of some kind. And, perhaps change would happen to reduce the chances of a shooting in the future.
But, instead, the outcome is the schools hold no responsibility to protect the kids from ex-students that may want to cause harm.