The families of five students shot—four fatally—at a high school in Washington state in 2014 will receive $18 million as part of a lawsuit settlement.
The Seattle Times reports that, according to documents filed in Snohomish County Superior Court, the insurance company for Marysville School District 25 will pay $18 million to the families of the students.
Four students were killed and one was seriously wounded on Oct. 24, 2014, in the cafeteria of Marysville Pilchuck High School when freshman Jaylen Fryberg, 15, opened fire. He subsequently took his own life.
The families contended in a lawsuit that the district was partly at fault for the shooting because a substitute teacher had been told of the possibility of a shooting, but failed to alert school officials.
The settlement amount was determined by the cap of the district’s insurance policy, which was $20 million, said Lincoln Beauregard, an attorney representing the family.
A claim against Raymond Fryberg, the father of the shooter who bought the gun used in the shootings, remains active.
The students who died were Gia Soriano, Zoe Gallaso and Shaylee Chuckulnaskit, all 14, and Andrew Fryberg, 15. A fifth student, Nate Hatch, 15, was shot in the face but survived.
Cooper, a substitute teacher, asserted that she had warned school officials of the impending mass shooting, but later it was revealed that she may actually not have told anyone.
According to court documents, Cooper says she told someone in the attendance office about the message and wrote a note to the teacher whose class she was covering, but nobody has turned up anyone she talked to, according to the documents. The teacher has said he did not receive any note.
