lawsuits
Parents of shooting victim file $100 million lawsuit against Oxford High staff, administrators
The parents of two Oxford High School students filed a lawsuit on Thursday against several school and district officials, claiming that last week's mass shooting at the Michigan campus was "entirely preventable."
Jeffrey and Brandi Franz are suing on behalf of their daughters, 17-year-old Riley Franz and 14-year-old Bella Franz, and are asking for more than $100 million in damages. The Nov. 30 shooting left four students dead and seven others injured. Riley was shot in the neck, the suit says, and both girls are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
The suit names several Oxford High School officials, including principal Steven Wolf, two counselors, and two teachers, as well as the Oxford Community School District and Superintendent Timothy Thorne. It alleges that Thorne and Wolf both ignored disturbing and threatening messages the suspect, 15-year-old Ethan Crumbley, made on social media, and his behavior was not reported to the school safety liaison officer. The officer was not in meetings school officials had with Crumbley and his parents, and Franz family attorney Geoffrey Fieger said on Thursday he has "not heard a rational explanation from the school administration as to why that was not utilized."
Fieger added that "as a result, by doing the things that they did or didn't do, they placed the students in much greater danger than they would have been had they done that. The students would have been protected and that is basically the essence in the federal complaint here."