Let’s talk about this.
The parents of a child who was in Sandy Hook Elementary School during the recent massacre, who is being called “Jill Doe” for anonymity, have filed suit on behalf of the child who “sustained emotional and psychological trauma and injury, the nature and extent of which are yet too be determined” from hearing gunfire, screaming and cursing over the loudspeaker during the horrifying attack that left 26 children and adults dead.
There is no doubt in my mind that this child is traumatized. As a parent, I cannot imagine anything worse than what those children experienced, and I still cry thinking about the terror the boys and girls lived through. With the knowledge that nearly an entire classroom of children were killed in that school—a place that was supposed to be safe, a place that was supposed to be fun—each child who survived the shooting will most likely be left with lasting trauma.
But this suit, as detailed by MSNBC.com, is being brought against the Board of Education, Department of Education, and the Education Commissioner, because they “had failed to take appropriate steps to protect children from ‘foreseeable harm.'”
As a parent whose children attend a public school, it is hard for me to imagine a school much safer than Sandy Hook reportedly was. For those of you whose kids are in public school, how many of your schools have locked doors with a buzz-in system? I would venture to guess not too many —though many more may start to after this.
My mind reels from the implications of suing the Board of Ed for $100 million. What will that accomplish? What do the parents hope to gain from this (other than money, which is a figure well beyond what their child will need in order to obtain all of the necessary therapy and counseling in her life)? Better evacuation plans? Such as “Mr. Wolf is in the Building“? Teaching your children to run away when a person with assault-style rifles starts shooting at their classmates?
Yes, absolutely every school needs to get more serious about evacuation and safety procedures. That is crucial for all emergencies from tornadoes to bomb threats to earthquakes. But what will really protect our kids when a deranged person is intent upon killing them?
The New Haven-based attorney, Irv Pinsky, said he was approached by the student’s parents soon after the shooting.
“We all know its going to happen again,” Pinsky said on Friday. “Society has to take action.”
Is this how we take action? By suing the Board of Ed? Is it true that, as MSNBC explains, that the school “failed to provide a ‘safe school setting’ or design ‘an effective student safety emergency response plan and protocol.'”
I cannot know what it was like for those children, and I don’t know what Jill Doe’s parents are experiencing right now, but I think we can all agree that yes, something needs to happen. Society has to take action.
But is this the action that will change our world to make our children safer?
Photo: David Goldman/AP
Have any other teachers responded to this article besides myself? I ask because nobody seems to understand the workings of a school, a district, a school board – and I believe – in my humble opinion – that the more people who truly know about all the factors involved – they should understand that this lawsuit will ONLY hurt ALL the children in the school district. Why stop at suing the school board – go ahead and sue the superintendent, the people who work in the district office, the teachers who survived – hell – sue the custodian because he… Read more »
I’m going to sue God for infecting our society with the mental illness popularly referred to as ‘Conservatism’.
I am with you Jake, for it is a global phenomenon. What does it conserve anyway?
These are hardly fair comments. Conservative values are often pro-family, and in the past, have been pro-environment. I remind you that the National Park system, as well as the wildly successful North American model of wild game management, are both legacies of Teddy Roosevelt, a conservative. Originally, conservatism was about conserving family and natural resources. Further, liberalism is not without its share of blame, for it encourages dependency upon the state, and government intervention in all aspects of life. Might as well call it Police State Progressivism, for that’s what the left is advocating currently. BTW, I’m not a member… Read more »
“Law and order” (aka police state) traditionally is a conservative concept, not a liberal/progressive one. Here in Germany I am supporting the Green party, which is by American standards a liberal/progressive party, and the support and protection of families is very high on the agenda – but clearly in some respect they have different views of what that is supposed to actually mean in detail. Saying liberals and progressives have no family values also is rather offensive. I also do not see that dependency on the state is encouraged by strong social programs. There may be some who exploit social… Read more »
+1 what Stefan said…
There is no one right answer to all this. Is suing the Board of Eduction the “right” one. Probably not — because anything that takes away actual education from kids is probably not the best way forward. However, Where would we be without “Brown vs. The Board of Education”? That was just a group of parents from Topeka Kansas who thought they were wronged. I don’t see much of a difference with this. IMO, the people suing are just trying to call attention to the shooting in a way that will be noticed the most. To try to get actions… Read more »
Bingo!!!!
Brown vs. The Board of Ed was suing about the actions of the board of ed (ie. segregation). Yes we want to draw attention to the issue of “guns in schools” but guns are not in schools due to the actions of the schools or the board of ed. It’s spurious to compare the two suits in fact. The suit should be aimed at the makes or guns, the sellers of guns, the state in general for not having stricter laws, and yes, maybe the estate of the mother. I understand she was quite wealthy.
Definitely not a spurious suit. Brown V. Board of Ed was about fair schools. Newtown Parents V. Board of Ed will be about safe schools.
See my comment above–the gun makers have no liability since they were legally purchased, and the mother’s former estate is unlikely to be a lucrative target, nor is it an effective one for creating social change. Only suing the school board makes sense to effect social change, that is, to create safer schools.
Please explain HOW suing the school board will create safer schools because from my viewpoint – as a teacher who has met with / talked with / worked with and stood up against – I see no positive outcome from this lawsuit. If you want safer schools – then DON’T try to take away money from the schools – give money TO the schools to CREATE safer schools.
MsWendy, If I may: The suit will bring a few public benefits and NOT cash forward to the plaintiffs. 1) The lawman in charge has already stated publicly that “the details of what happened inside that school will never be made public.” Not in this country you don’t. ALL authorities and schools need to examine and benefit from what happened. Cover-up, as blatant as he positions it, must be undone. The power of discovery from the CT courts will open-up what he wrongly chooses to suppress. It took the police 20 minutes to arrive on-sight in a what we call… Read more »
Rob ~ a few points in regard to your post ~ if I may. . . . . . 1. I will admit that I have not read any news reports, watched any of the footage or read any of the “stories” from the shooting. The ONLY thing I saw was a brief interview with the 1st grade teacher who hid here 15 First graders in a bathroom to save their lives. It was an interview with Diane Sawyer the evening of the shooting. So I did not know about the 20 minute delay in police response time and that… Read more »
Well stated MsWendy! VERY well stated. You clearly own your belief’s as securely as I own mine. Teachers are the hardest working public employees (right next to cops and fire-fighters). My statement re accountability and distaste for same, and scrutiny as well, comes from 3-decades of working with the “broad govt sector.” And I’m talking about those in all levels of management AND rank-&-file who resist, resist, resist, any performance review that carries any sort of consequence. I won’t go one to judge from there, as I have not held one of those govt positions. But this is what I… Read more »
Six months after the 9-11 attack, two of the highjackers got their visas approved.
That they were dead didn’t matter. The ‘crat in question sent the visas to their prior address–a flight school in FL–rather than to a large hole in Manhattan. Couldn’t even keep their locations up to date.
She was “disciplined”, i.e. promoted sideways.
The four State Dept officials “disciplined” for the Benghazi mess are back to work after being –publicly–fired.
Accountability in government is an ephemeral thing.
Rob ~ you brought up 5 excuses that I have heard many times ~ just different players ~ but the same roles. Currently, the local police and the powers that be in the “law & order sector” have a starring role in the “excuse without explanation” and “blame others” theatrical production that has been going on for over a year now. It goes to show ~ in my opinion ~ that every profession, every workplace has members who are great at passing responsibility onto someone else ~ so as not to make themselves look bad. I see it in my… Read more »
Oh, yeah. To be purposely repetitive, since nobody else is interested, I’d like to know why it took the cops twenty minutes to arrive. I believe the Supremes have said the cops have no duty to protect–can’t be sued for failing to protect–so perhaps a lawsuit to find out the answer wouldn’t work. But it would be nice to know. You’d think, after the other mass shootings, there’d be some kind of annual drill of everybody getting someplace in that little town really fast. Or at least a planning meeting. Does it take that long to disassemble a speed trap?… Read more »
Frank. One characteristic of mass shootings is that the perps took time and care. Some were, perhaps narrowly, pretty bright in a version of idiot savant bright. See Holmes, Lanza, Klebold and Harris. If they felt like killing, another weapon would be easy enough for them to arrange. Gasoline bombs, for example. Propane bombs are tough to do right, but they might get lucky. Fortunately, at Columbine, the perps did not get it right. As the Times Square [attempted] bomber’s work fizzled. Still, there are guys who know how to do it. How to apply social values to crazy people… Read more »
WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH THE WORLD????????????????????
The only one to blame here is the messed-up freak (and POSSIBLY his mother…) who did the shooting. The School System had reasonable security…Are we to turn schools into fortresses because the USA simply will not limit access to weapons??????????? Instead of trying to blame ONE individual or One institution, the Unites States of America and its citizens needs to examine its gun laws , access to guns, and social values. END OF STORY!
Ms. Wendy. Not much the school board can do about your situation. As a bunch of LAUSD teachers said, bring us kids who won’t assault us or each other, who do their homework, who show up in class, etc, and we’ll get you some education results. On the blog, “Belmont Club” is a youtube vid of a girl calling out her teacher, screaming she wants an education. The other kids are laughing and catcalling. There are a number of schools with armed guards. Siddley Friends (sp?) in DC has them. David Gregory, firearms felon, sends his offspring there while sneering… Read more »
A psychologically unstable young man in one of the most peaceful regions of the world had easy access to several military style weapons and massive amounts of ammunition and then went on a rampage mass murdering school children and teachers. Now my challenge: what is the decisive parameter in this equation?
The decisive parameter is the shooter. Without guns, he’d have come up with something else. Look, for example, at the 93 WTC bombing. No guns at all. Ditto 9-11.
And “massive” amounts of ammo isn’t correct. The shooters in recent attempts carried about what a guy would use up on an afternoon at the shooting range. Maybe less.
This is simply not borne out by the statistics. The USA has three times the murder rate of Canada. THREE TIMES. And we Canadians love us some murder for sure. We have dismembered bodies buried on farms all over the place. And we have plenty of mental illness and no more mental hospitals (although mental health care, when it can be accessed at all, is free. But it is difficult to access, particularly for children). What we don’t have is as much impulsive mass murder or domestic violence murder or successful suicides because for that you need easily accessible/high caliber/semi-automatic… Read more »
So you think the fella would have spontaneously hijacked a jet airplane (without a gun, mind you) and ran it into the school? Or spontaneously built a complicated explosive device? Kurt Vonnegut once wrote that saying someone is “good with a gun” is akin to saying someone is “good with a zippo”. That’s not an unimportant point. It requires zero skill and zero intellect to load and fire a gun. Even for a person with an IQ near room temperature in a state of complete derangement it is easy to do. And since you mentioned 9/11: how many guns in… Read more »
How soon we forget ……… 19 children under the age of 6 were killed while playing in their daycare facility at the Oklahoma City Federal Building when a bomb exploded taking 168 lives in a matter of seconds. Every person in that building could have been armed and in bullet proof vests – but they could not have prevented the senseless deaths and unimaginable evil that took place that morning. No amount of money or armed guards can prevent someone who has no empathy or respect for the lives of others from doing evil. We – as a society –… Read more »
Stefan. You missed the point. Several of them. WRT 9-11: On three of the highjacked airliners, the passengers did what the government had told them to do in case of highjacking. Sit there and the government will take care of things. These people are known as victims. The goverment didn’t have a clue what was going on, except for a few who were wondering if exdigitating would be a good career move (generally not). On the fourth plane, the passengers found out what was happening and mustered the 93d detachment of the General Militia. They put the plane into an… Read more »
Richard: 9/11 is as bad an example as there could be one. The hijacking schemes were new and unique in the history of air traffic. Not every far out scenario can be included in security precautions. In the case of 9/11 the best precaution would have been a total isolation of the pilots from the rest of the airplane. Allowing weapons among air passengers – I presume you are not seriously suggesting that. I also can hardly imagine that you want to compare Newton to Beslan, i.e. the Republic of North Ossetia–Alania with a per capita GDP of around US$… Read more »
Stefan, “Richard: 9/11 is as bad an example as there could be one. The hijacking schemes were new and unique in the history of air traffic. Not every far out scenario can be included in security precautions. In the case of 9/11 the best precaution would have been a total isolation of the pilots from the rest of the airplane” I believe the highjackers got the pilots to come out of the cockpit by slicing up the cabin crew, generating shrieks and screams. I have heard that every cockpit includes some kind of hatchet for emergency hacking your way out… Read more »
Richard: sliced up the cabin crew? With what? In any case: I am not opposed to armed air marshalls or even pilots, if properly trained. Tasers or bean bag guns should do the trick. You obviously wouldn’t want high calibre weapons in a pressurized cabin. The more legal guns there are, the more illegal guns are around as well too. They obviously are stolen, sold on the black market and reported as lost or stolen. In fact the urge to possess an illegal gun is in itself an incentive for crime. Beslan: I think it is difficult to compare incidents… Read more »
Stefan. Sliced up the cabin crew with boxcutters. Everybody knows that. In fact, at the time, they were legal to take onto an airplane. You know what they are, right? Used in opening carboard cartons and boxes. Not much bigger than a stick of gum. Point is, as regards Flight 93, if a non-professional had had a gun, what worse could have happened? The folks are all dead. You knew that, right? Also, putting a bullet hole in an aircraft at altitude only results in explosive decompression in James Bond movies. So there was no reason to mention Beslan? Personally,… Read more »
Richard – it is not a main point here, but I am the only one of the 7 billion who doesn’t know that the box cutters played a role in hijacking flight 93? Checked Wikipedia. No boxcutters mentioned. But it does surprise me that knives of any sort have been legal at the time. Whenever I travelled by plane – be it in europe, the US or Asia, be it in the 70s, 80s, 90s or 00s, I usually was thoroughly searched. The difference was that after Sept. 11 not even metal pens were allowed anymore and even nail cutters… Read more »
As a 24 year veteran of the public school system I can honestly say that the School Board is NOT a fault for the tragedy that took place at Sandy Hook. If a school board can be sued for failure “to provide a ‘safe school setting’ or design ‘an effective student safety emergency response plan and protocol’” then can we start suing police departments for failure to provide a “safe shopping experience” if we are mugged / robbed while buying Christmas presents? No matter how many safety factors are in place ~ things can happen ~ unfortunately. I teach at… Read more »
HEADLINE: School Shooting ! Is anyone surprised at that all-to-common headline anymore? It happens. It happens over and over and over again…and NOT just in the USA. Not only are schools THE single most vulnerable targets in the entire world, but they are THE single most dramatic in desired terrorist reaction. I’ve been waiting for a USA elementary school to get hit this way. Anyone who thinks in a survival, risk, vulnerability, human-nature mode saw this coming from 2001 miles away. Again, readers, does anyone remember Beslan? Muslim extremists (big shock) reined horror on an epic scale upon the city… Read more »
Meant as a reply to Gabrielle Prendergast
Money grobbing !pportunist !
“opportunist”
Maybe they are people who just expect leaders to do their job…and when it costs children’s lives, it might be taken a bit seriously? Just a thought.
In a wicked way it actually might have an impact. ;onetary cost and risk of cost in our sick society unfortunately are stronger incentives than potential loss of life – including children. If suddenly every school board, every town, every public authority faces the risk of getting sued into financial oblivion, the following financial risk assessment may well achieve what one massacre after the other and thousands of annual victims did not: stricter laws and controls.
Yes, the precedent of a schoolboard being sued bankrupt for an incredibly rare, almost statistically unprecedented incident (in an elementary school) should be a great precedent to set. It’ll be great for those kids in Newtown to go to a school that is completely broke. Maybe they’ll be lucky enough to be like the students in most LAUSD schools in LA proper and have 35 kids in a class with 20 lesson books, no PE, no art, no science, no nurse, no teachers aides, no computers and no music. Genius. I’m so FLAMING mad at this conversation that I will… Read more »
Yeah…this is why I think if the SB is at fault, they should do life in prison or have a date with a needle from such abject negligence.
I am not endorsing that the school board be sued in any way. I think the system is sick, and it is cynical beyond belief that a school board is being sued. I could understand if criminal charges were pressed, if there were real negligence involved (it wasn’t). The immediate reflex to sue for preposterous amounts of money is ridiculous and shameful and, as you say, likely to be paid for by school children.
Wow, you guys are both…I can’t even… How would the school board possibly protect kids from being shot during recess by a sniper? Or getting off the school bus? Exactly what sort of protective measures do you thinks schools should take? Should schools be fortresses? What about public parks? Streets? “The school board is the only one left which is both associated with the trauma and can be hurt in some kind of vengeful sense.” Are you kidding about this? What about the manufacturer and seller of the weapon or ammunition? This weapon and ammo were used exactly as designed.… Read more »
Gabrielle, Two points. I didn’t say the school was or should be held responsible. I said the trial, if it goes that far, will be making that point. That’s the lawyer’s job. Wasn’t my idea. And, given a number of examples, such as Pearl, MS; New Life Church in Colorado, Trolley Square Mall in Utah, Appalachian School of Law, and some others, the value of an armed citizen on scene is obvious. You don’t need to be right to be making that point, and to convince a jury who is watching distraught parents and thinking of an insurance company’s deep… Read more »
The alley is city property, therefore my safety there is the responsibility of the city. Given that many sexual assaults happen in alleys, shouldn’t many rape victims sue the city for damages for not having security guards (presumably armed to the teeth) posted in alleys? As for the wine, winemakers are very clear that their products are not to be used by children, pregnant women, etc. Gun makers, less so. You, Richard said “The school board is the only one left which is both associated with the trauma and can be hurt in some kind of vengeful sense.” I challenge… Read more »
Gabrielle: why not? Because they are not trying to make a point – they are trying to make money and seek out the softest target. The arms industry is not a soft target. They will do EVERYTHING to avoid loosing such a case or avoid that it be brought to court in the first place. My idea by the way is that full coverage liability insurance should be mandatory for obtaining a license to own a weapon. And: for each individual weapon. That would be a partial free market solution for the problem. The approach would be similar to the… Read more »
I’m with Gabrielle.
The shooter SHOT OUT GLASS to get past a locked door. Should the glass have had chicken wire on it? Should there have been an armed guard standing out front? What if he’d gone in the back, or side, and shot out glass?
Illogical. Completely illogical.
Again, What of Banks?
What do banks do? Is cash worth more than children?
Rob is correct. Joanna, you might want to revisit the logic of this case. The lawsuit is a free market solution at work, and will insure armed guards (the NRA’s solution, too, duly noted) in every school, as well as reinforced glass and revised security features. As he and others have noted, there are armed guards in banks, jewelry stores, Black Friday sales, at events attended by Hollywood celebrities, and yet it is considered barbaric to put armed guards or other armed personnel in schools? I, like Robb, hope that the people bringing the suit are successful. Legal challenges are… Read more »
I assume the school board simply is a softer target for lawyers than large multi national corporations who are used to this game. Morally the school board is the wrong party to blame, obviously. But can you sue Washington for lousy laws? For me it is a scary thought that an elementary school teacher has such murderous tools in her home.
I don’t want to sound condescending here, but as an outsider to the U.S. culture this is saddening and amusing at the same time. It pretty sums up the biggest flaws in the U.S. psyche: gun ownership and exploitative and opportunistic capitalism.
Metal detectors may have saved lives, but banning guns would have saved many, many more.
I’m not sure suing someone is Capitalism. Capitalism is two people making an exchange of goods, services, or currency freely, on their own accord.
A legal system largely focused on the financial outcome of litigation which has a lot to do with profit maximization on the side of large law offices probably can be considered an outgrow of capitalism. Aside from that capitalism is NOT two people. It is a belief system that centers on self interest and the invisible hand, i.e. the belief that “somehow” the “market forces” will lead to economic equilibrium that, again “somehow”, will benefit all. A concept that in its purest form has long been debunked by reality. It is merely another religion. Another definition of capitalism is the… Read more »
Beslan got some ink when it happened. But it was an atrocity by you-know-who/whom and so we aren’t supposed to remember it or take a lesson.
Be interesting if the plaintiff’s lawyer inquires why the school didn’t have an employee, or use a volunteer who had a certified course and a $600 piece of equipment.
The plaintiff’s lawyer is not required to have a sensitive, twenty-first century view of the awfulness of guns. At least, not for purposes of a $100 mill trial. The defendants’ answers will be agonizing.
Still want to see why it took the cops twenty minutes.
Hell yes this will help! And I truly hope she is victorious. School boards need to learn that: 1) it was entirely reasonable to expect safety provision for the students by the school. 2) the massacre was reasonably predictable and likely give the massive numbers of school shootings world-wide and within the USA dating WAY back for Conyers GA, Beslan USSR and Colorado. We only hear about the big ones. I bet nobody remembers Conyers OR Beslan. BOTH were huge and BOTH warned the world that our schools are the ultimate terror target. But “guns are icky,” so we’ll hope… Read more »
I want to nominate this comment for most imbecilic of 2012.
I dare anyone to come up with a better choice.
Well done Rob!
That was really nice. good counter-ideas too!
https://goodmenproject.com/commenting-policy/ is not observed for one side of the tracks.
It’s normal to be angry at somebody after a trauma like this, or considerably less traumatic. The problem is where to place one’s anger. Lanza and his mother are dead. Suing her estate won’t hurt her, thus is not a place to put one’s anger. I suppose people are mad at Lanza’s father and may even have contemplated going after him somehow. Some people need to be mad. As T. R. Fehrenbach remarked in a different context, sometimes men must howl. The school board is the only one left which is both associated with the trauma and can be hurt… Read more »