Fifteen students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High have sued Broward County, Fla., leaders, school personnel and law enforcement officers who they say are responsible for the psychological trauma that students suffered during the Feb. 14 school shooting.
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports that the 15 were either inside classrooms in the 1200 building of the Parkland, Fla., campus where classmates were killed or were on school grounds, says Attorney Solomon Radner.
Defendants in the suit are Broward Sheriff Scott Israel; Sheriff's Capt. Jan Jordan, who oversaw operations during the shooting; Andrew Medina, a school monitor who spotted the gunman walking toward the 1200 building; Broward County School Superintendent Robert Runcie; and school resource officer Scot Peterson, who was on the scene but did not enter the building when the shooting began.
The suit is asking for compensatory damages.
The students contend that Peterson and Medina acted with "extreme deliberate indifference" by failing to stop or engage the shooter before he carried out his attack. The suit faults Jordan for giving the order to "stage" instead of attacking the shooter, and Israel and Runcie for knowing about the threat posed by Cruz and failing to implement safety measures.
Radner says some of law enforcement officials who responded to the shooting scene at the school were ineffective during the massacre.
“This is a shot at specific law enforcement officials who failed the students on that particular day,” the attorney says. “Law enforcement choked, and the goal of this lawsuit is to ensure that this never happens again. If they choke and they cause people to die, they will have to face the music.”
