The Colorado legislator introduced a bill that would allow the victims of school shootings or their families to sue schools when the violence is “reasonably foreseeable.”
The bill would permit victims and their families to collect up to $350,000 from schools in a move lawmakers say will motivate education officials to improve school security, according to the Insurance Journal. Currently, schools have governmental immunity from being sued in Colorado.
Democratic House Speaker Dickey Lee Hullinghorst said the bill, which has bipartisan support, would reassure parents that their kids are safe in schools.
The bill is a response to the fatal 2013 shooting of Claire Davis at Arapahoe High School. School officials did not punish 18-year-old Karl Pierson after he shouted a death threat at his debate coach, despite being aware of his violent history. Months later he entered the school with a shotgun, machete and homemade bombs, killing Davis before taking his own life. If passed, the bill would allow Davis’s parents to sue the school.
Photo: cohousedems.com
