Red Lake Shooting Survivors Sue Security Company

[Medic468]

http://wcco.com/local/red.lake.survivors.2.663285.html

Red Lake Shooting Survivors Sue Security Company
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) ―

Survivors and teachers affected by the 2005 school shooting on the Red Lake Indian Reservation are suing a company that had been hired to come up with a security plan for the school.

Attorneys say the lawsuits have been served on Burnsville-based MacNeil Environmental and will be filed in Hennepin County District Court this week.

The lawsuits say MacNeil wasn't qualified to implement a crisis plan mandated by state law. The lawsuit also says the company failed to follow through on a plan for the Red Lake School District.

MacNeil Environmental didn't immediately return a call seeking comment.

Elliot Olsen represents Steven Cobenais, one of the students who survived the shooting but was left with a severe brain injury. Olsen says Steven will need help the rest of his life.

Olsen says MacNeil should be held liable for not giving school officials the tools they needed to respond when Jeff Weise opened fire at the school, killing seven students and then himself on March 21, 2005.

This could be interesting. One could argue that a win opens the door to the argument that a school or college failed to prepare by restricting staff or permitted individuals from carrying they are liable.

[BRIT_in_the_weeds]

Olsen says MacNeil should be held liable for not giving school officials the tools they needed to respond when Jeff Weise opened fire at the school, killing seven students and then himself on March 21, 2005.

Two schools of thought here. IMO
The first, refering to another thread where 50 G19's were purchased, can be taken as being given the tools..............

The other is a kumbayah, group trust building weekend, where they're taught to make themselves small on the floor .................

Fairly obvious I think, what tools we might opt for.
Prayers for the families affected by this tragedy..............when will society wake up?

[hammAR]

So why not add the local police in the suit too, after all it was his relatives gun who is on the police that he stole and used.....failure to properly secure the weapon, providing a weapon aiding and abetting the perpetration of a felony....................


I love the school shifting of blame and lack of responsibility,
but then again is it the crisis plan mandated by state law that is at fault.........................

lots to consider................

[lenny7]

They're just suing checkbooks now. There was a limit as to how much the school district had to pay ($1,000,000 total, I think) and evidently that wasn't enough cash to make them feel better.

I have no respect for the lawyers instigating this and the only thing that keeps me from losing all my sympathy for the families involves is that I suspect that the lawyers have been encouraging this in their time of pain.

What a crock of ****!

[David]

This is the most ridiculous lawsuit I have ever seen. This is the business I'm in, and I can tell you that safety plans are only effective if the companies (or schools) who buy them implement & practice them. Having dealt with members of the Red Lake community after the shooting, I can tell you that it wasn't.

I heard the attorney on NPR yesterday saying that if McNeil had given them a better plan, the shooting wouldn't have happened, or would have been delayed. The only thing that could have prevented the incident would have been dealing with the kid before the shooting took place, and the only thing that could have delayed (or stopped) him once the incident started would have been armed guards all over the school. Neither of those things are within the consultant's control. All they sold the District was a boiler-plated plan that was published by the Department of Education. Maybe the plan could have stopped the kid if they threw the three-ring binder it was in at him as he came through the door. This suit disgusts (and scares) me greatly.

It's funny how badly the media got all the details of the story, too, like calling McNeil a "security consultant" (they are health, safety, and environmental consultants), saying they are based in Bloomington (they are based in Coleraine, with an office in Burnsville, not Bloomington), and so much more that it was laughable. Idiots.