Washington: The family of Riley Franz, a student who was shot in the neck at Oxford High School in the US state of Michigan November 30, has filed a $100 million lawsuit, local media reported.
The federal lawsuit, filed Thursday, accuses school officials of dismissing violent threats, not only in the hours and days before Ethan Crumbley’s shooting, but also two weeks earlier when students and parents raised concerns, local media quoted attorney Geoffrey Fieger as saying.
In addition to the federal lawsuit, a similar suit will be filed in state court, which will also seek $100 million, Xinhua news agency quoted Fieger as further saying. Riley Franz, 17, and her sister Bella, 14, were together when Riley and other students were shot. The girls had been in a bathroom and were shot at as they emerged.
In the days since, both girls have suffered from anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder, along with physical and emotional injuries, according to the lawsuit. Days before the attack, Crumbley “acted in such a way that would lead a reasonable observer to know and/or believe that he was planning to cause great bodily harm”, the lawsuit states.
It accuses school officials of increasing the danger to students by allowing Crumbley to stay at the school and repeatedly failing to inform the school safety liaison officer about his behaviour and excluding him from a meeting with his parents.
In the days leading up to the shooting, Crumbley “posted countdowns and threats of bodily harm, including death, on his social media accounts, warning of violent tendencies and murderous ideology prior to actually coming to school with the handgun and ammunition to perpetuate the slaughter”, the suit says.
The night before the shooting, Crumbley said on Twitter: “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds. See you tomorrow Oxford.”
The goal of claiming a high price in the suit is “to compel people to do something” to prevent school shootings, said Fieger. Defendants in the federal suit include school district superintendent Timothy Throne, Oxford High School Principal Steven Wolf, two teachers, two counsellors and a staff member.