I'm speechless....

[Amber St. Clare]

I came across this today and really don't know what to say:

MERIDEN, Connecticut (Reuters) - A $100 million claim on behalf of a 6-year-old survivor is the first legal action to come out of the Connecticut school shooting that left 26 children and adults dead two weeks ago.The unidentified client, referred to as Jill Doe, heard "cursing, screaming, and shooting" over the school intercom when the gunman, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, opened fire, according to the claim filed by New Haven-based attorney Irv Pinsky."As a consequence, the ... child has sustained emotional and psychological trauma and injury, the nature and extent of which are yet to be determined," the claim said.Pinsky said he filed a claim on Thursday with state Claims Commissioner J. Paul Vance Jr., whose office must give permission before a lawsuit can be filed against the state."We all know its going to happen again," Pinsky said on Friday. "Society has to take action."Twenty children and six adults were shot dead on December 14 at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. The children were all 6 and 7 years old.Pinsky's claim said that the state Board of Education, Department of Education and Education Commissioner had failed to take appropriate steps to protect children from "foreseeable harm."It said they had failed to provide a "safe school setting" or design "an effective student safety emergency response plan and protocol."Pinsky said he was approached by the child's parents within a week of the shooting


n/m, too emotional.

 

[minousbijoux]

Wow. Wayne LaPierre's solution to "appropriate steps to protect children from 'foreseeable harm' " would be armed police officers in every elementary school. Where are we going? I wonder what the parents in that lawsuit want - what would make them feel that their child had adequate protection? I don't for a minute pretend that I have any answers...

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Ah, this just sickens me. I can see the parents asking for mental health care for the child, but $100 million is just ridiculous. They should be busy hugging their child, not running to court to make money from this horrible incident.

 

[madelise]

Ah, this just sickens me. I can see the parents asking for mental health care for the child, but $100 million is just ridiculous. They should be busy hugging their child, not running to court to make money from this horrible incident.

What the hell? Are they seriously trying to make a paycheck out of this?!?

 

[Amber St. Clare]

Honestly? I threw up in my mouth a little when I read it. Disgusting. I would be on my knees 24/7 thanking the Almighty my child was spared, not trying to make a payday out of it.

 

[minousbijoux]

See, MC, what I'm afraid of is that the parents aren't just trying to make quick money from the situation but perhaps really hope to bring pressure to bring change, and I just don't believe that there is any kind of safe guard or protection that could possibly be put in place, save for the old standby of "meet violence with violence."

In times of personal crisis, I find it very hard to sit still and do nothing. So I don't know if this fits the situation, and definitely don't think it would be for the best, but I could see being completely freaked out if I was the parent of a surviving child at Sandy Hook; I would be traumatized and simply be unable to sit around hoping it didn't happen again. If this meant filing a lawsuit to hurry along change, then I might, without even realizing what I was doing, do it. It doesn't feel to me that the answer is having a bunch of armed guards at public schools in this country...

 

[madelise]

See, MC, what I'm afraid of is that the parents aren't just trying to make quick money from the situation but perhaps really hope to bring pressure to bring change, and I just don't believe that there is any kind of safe guard or protection that could possibly be put in place, save for the old standby of "meet violence with violence."

In times of personal crisis, I find it very hard to sit still and do nothing. So I don't know if this fits the situation, and definitely don't think it would be for the best, but I could see being completely freaked out if I was the parent of a surviving child at Sandy Hook; I would be traumatized and simply be unable to sit around hoping it didn't happen again. If this meant filing a lawsuit to hurry along change, then I might, without even realizing what I was doing, do it. It doesn't feel to me that the answer is having a bunch of armed guards at public schools in this country...

What would $100 million be? I mean, wouldn't 1 million suffice to make a statement? I feel this is SO insulting to those parents who have lost their child..

 

[aviastar]

See, MC, what I'm afraid of is that the parents aren't just trying to make quick money from the situation but perhaps really hope to bring pressure to bring change, and I just don't believe that there is any kind of safe guard or protection that could possibly be put in place, save for the old standby of "meet violence with violence."

In times of personal crisis, I find it very hard to sit still and do nothing. So I don't know if this fits the situation, and definitely don't think it would be for the best, but I could see being completely freaked out if I was the parent of a surviving child at Sandy Hook; I would be traumatized and simply be unable to sit around hoping it didn't happen again. If this meant filing a lawsuit to hurry along change, then I might, without even realizing what I was doing, do it. It doesn't feel to me that the answer is having a bunch of armed guards at public schools in this country...

What would $100 million be? I mean, wouldn't 1 million suffice to make a statement? I feel this is SO insulting to those parents who have lost their child..

I have to agree with you, Madelise. I understand the need to do something, but I think my personal reaction would be to want to pull my kids out of school and homeschool- which isn't necessarily the right thing, either. It seems very foreign and somehow inappropriate to start attaching dollar values to this.

That said, we aren't in the middle of this either, and I don't really want to think they are just trying to cash in, so I hope that they are choosing this way to create change.

 

[justginger]

My gut reaction is: wrong, wrong, wrong. BUT, I am not a mother. I am not a mother with a child who survived that incomprehensible event. I can not even fathom what is going on in their lives, their minds. I hope they lose this lawsuit, but I am incapable of judging their actions one way or another.

 

[Sparklelu]

What in Gods name did they want the school to do? First of all this was an incredibly safe community, something they actually prided themselves on.
But should they have installed Bars on the windows? Bullet proof glass? No windows? Armed guards patrolling the halls? Children escorted to and from the bathroom, clinic, library? Snipers on the roof?
How can they say the school was not prepared, they had plans in place and they followed them, secure the doors. Hide away from the doors and windows. The exact plan in place in thousands of schools in the United States.
The horrible acts that monster performed were unpredictable. Yet there were teachers and administration who sprang into action, at risk of their own lives because they had a plan. They did what they were trained to do.
Instead of suing for an obscene amount of money they should be thanking God every day for whatever reason their child was spared and leave it at that. Not for nothing the lawyer is a piece of crap for taking the case. He should have told them, go home hug your kid, start a foundation.
As an aside one of the adult survivors had one take away from the whole thing, every school classroom door should lock from the inside( something our doors do not!, we have to run to the door and use our key to quickly lock the door during a code red)
So let the parents create a foundation that provides every single school in the United States that needs it new locks.
Then hug their kid again

 

[Kaleigh]

If they want to make change, do it on the hill through law but don't profit by some law suit. The school had a lock down procedure, did they envision this guy would shoot his way through. Not by any means.

I can't imagine how those families feel who lost their kids. Just so wrong. But will try and see what reason if any is behind this.

 

[Kaleigh]

I have been in Contact with the owner of a Newtown Store to make a donation on 1.26. I picked 1.26 bcause it was 26 victims and it's my birthday and wanted to pay it forward.

I don't know if I can include litgious families. I will focus more on the teachers and first responders. I will have to see how this plays out. I have time to make my final decision.

 

[MissGotRocks]

Evil produces more evil. Sad but true. These people are simply opportunists and their child has not been any more adversely affected than the rest that had to bear witness to this. Most are right; they should simply be thankful that their own child was spared. These types of horrific things are as random as the weather. You can't predict them and you can't completely guard against them. If I had lost my own child in this nightmare I would be beyond outrage at the filing of this suit. It's disgusting and shameful. I hope they feel the full backlash of the entire community for this. I can't imagine them getting a favorable ruling in this case.

 

[LALove]

You know... My first reaction to reading the OPs post was to think that the parents are doing this to find some way to cope with what they've been through- some way to change things. Kind of like people who's loved ones are injured or die as a result of drunk driving and as a way to not feel so effect they petition for stricter laws or become educational speakers on the dangers of drunk driving etc. I think, when people are faced with dealing with a life altering tradegy, to not feel so helpless and like nothing is in their control, they have to find some way to regain some sense of control.

Maybe the parents intend to just send a "wake up call" to the state or use the money to make their area schools more secure/safe? I could be wrong as I don't know them or their intentions.. And I'm also not saying I think this is a good idea - i actually think its a pretty bad idea for many reasons- but that was just my first impression when I read the quoted article.

I cannot imagine what any of these parents are going through. Ever since this horrific tragedy, not only am I fearful of sending DS to school everyday, I am also overly aware and observant of EVERYONE while out in public - looking for possible bad guys. I have to constantly remind myself that there are many, many more good people than bad/evil people out there. I imagine if I were one of these parents, I would not only be completely heartsick but also paranoid and I'd have to find some way to gain some sense of control over my life to ever begin to move on.

ETA - I've also noticed that sometimes people's knee jerk reactions when looking for that way to gain control are not always rational and maybe that is the case here. I'd hate to think they're just opportunists looking to get rich. Ugh.

 

[minousbijoux]

See, MC, what I'm afraid of is that the parents aren't just trying to make quick money from the situation but perhaps really hope to bring pressure to bring change, and I just don't believe that there is any kind of safe guard or protection that could possibly be put in place, save for the old standby of "meet violence with violence."

In times of personal crisis, I find it very hard to sit still and do nothing. So I don't know if this fits the situation, and definitely don't think it would be for the best, but I could see being completely freaked out if I was the parent of a surviving child at Sandy Hook; I would be traumatized and simply be unable to sit around hoping it didn't happen again. If this meant filing a lawsuit to hurry along change, then I might, without even realizing what I was doing, do it. It doesn't feel to me that the answer is having a bunch of armed guards at public schools in this country...

What would $100 million be? I mean, wouldn't 1 million suffice to make a statement? I feel this is SO insulting to those parents who have lost their child..

I agree completely with this, and agree with the sentiment of taking my kids and moving away or home schooling them instead. But I was trying to attribute a reason, other than a profit motivation, for their action. If their action was indeed motivated by greed, then I too would be disgusted, and hope they are ostracized by that mourning community.

 

[minousbijoux]

What in Gods name did they want the school to do? First of all this was an incredibly safe community, something they actually prided themselves on.
But should they have installed Bars on the windows? Bullet proof glass? No windows? Armed guards patrolling the halls? Children escorted to and from the bathroom, clinic, library? Snipers on the roof?
How can they say the school was not prepared, they had plans in place and they followed them, secure the doors. Hide away from the doors and windows. The exact plan in place in thousands of schools in the United States.
The horrible acts that monster performed were unpredictable. Yet there were teachers and administration who sprang into action, at risk of their own lives because they had a plan. They did what they were trained to do.
Instead of suing for an obscene amount of money they should be thanking God every day for whatever reason their child was spared and leave it at that. Not for nothing the lawyer is a piece of crap for taking the case. He should have told them, go home hug your kid, start a foundation.
As an aside one of the adult survivors had one take away from the whole thing, every school classroom door should lock from the inside( something our doors do not!, we have to run to the door and use our key to quickly lock the door during a code red)
So let the parents create a foundation that provides every single school in the United States that needs it new locks.
Then hug their kid again

Excellent idea, Elisa!

 

[VRBeauty]

I'll say that my first reaction when reading this news item was also disgust. That said, I'm not going to assume the parents are just in it for the money - but I also don't understand what it is they're really after. It seems from the news that the school had both security measures and a disaster plan in place - and that their disaster planning in all likelihood saved the lives of at least one class full of students. And those all that traumatizing noise their child heard over the intercom... well, that probably helped alert other teachers to spring into action, and might well have saved their child's life.

 

[ksinger]

At the risk of sounding callous, I really don't care about being fair or trying to understand their state of mind, especially since these parents did NOT lose a child and still they feel the need to attempt to bankrupt the public schools in CT and clog up the courts with this nonsense. And it's got to be like pouring acid on those who did lose a child, and a massive slap to the families of the teachers and administrators who died in defense of their students.

I'm always amazed (and you'd think I'd be dry of that response) when people act as if SOMEONE is SUPPOSED to provide a perfectly safe world for them - because they are clearly entitled to a perfectly safe world. Then, when the world turns out to be stubbornly random and dangerous, they look for someone to blame. And equally balk at doing the things necessary to make themselves safer. The reaction of those parents above just screams entitlement to a world that is proof against even the most statistically insignificant risks.

La Pierre is clearly a nutter, but if one can get past the knee-jerk opposition to anything spouted by the NRA, the idea of at least one cop in the school is not such a bad idea. In most inner city schools, at the middle and highschool levels at least, this has already been the case for a long time. If impoverished inner city districts can come up with the scratch for a few cops, there is no reason that a well-funded suburban school district can't do the same. (The difference of course, is perception and public will.) And I'm not talking an armed guard, or a RIP'ed cop too fat walk the hall or too sleepy to find his weapon - I'm talking a fit, trained, certified law enforcement officer. My husband has many more good accounts than bad, of those guys and their ability to develop information networks within the schools, and stop things before they have a chance to happen. Any teacher here can tell you, things happen in schools right now - even good schools, more often than you might think, that never make the news, but that would horrify the public if they knew. Drugs, suicide attempts, gang fights, etc. And your kid is far more at risk from another kid bringing a weapon than a nutjob shooter, and it is incidents such as this that these cops are particularly well-suited to circumvent.

But I realize from long exposure here on this board and even in my own social circles, that the kind of schools (public or otherwise) that most here send/will send their kids to, are perceived as being above all that gutter stuff, and so resistance to the appearance of needing any real protection is pretty staunch. But you can't have it both ways - you can't be uber-paranoid about risks to your kids, and then resist all but the most surface attempts to make them safe.

The world has never been a perfectly safe place, a fact which previous generations understood far better than our own seat-belted, air-bagged, vaccinated, and helmeted one.

 

[SB621]

Honestly? I threw up in my mouth a little when I read it. Disgusting. I would be on my knees 24/7 thanking the Almighty my child was spared, not trying to make a payday out of it.

You took the words right out of my mouth! And really how was this forseeable. You can't prevent madmen! Even if there was an armed guard and other sorts of precautions taken. It just means that madmen have to be more creative.

 

[JewelFreak]

These people let themselves fall prey to some ambulance chaser lawyer, I'm sure -- but go along willingly, blinded by dollar signs.

Another case: 8 U.S. Navy sailors are suing Japan for having underestimated the radiation level after the tsunami. Our sailors were among the early search & rescue teams, off a ship nearby. They want money because they might, in 20 or 40 yrs, get cancer. A humiliating representation of America imo. You can't sue over an event that has not happened, and if anyone gets cancer, suit could only be brought if it can be linked directly to that event. Pure greed. Better they sue the U.S. gov't for ordering them to do the rescue -- but they know they can't, so try to fleece Japan. Real instance of compassion, there.

--- Laurie

 

[MichelleCarmen]

See, MC, what I'm afraid of is that the parents aren't just trying to make quick money from the situation but perhaps really hope to bring pressure to bring change, and I just don't believe that there is any kind of safe guard or protection that could possibly be put in place, save for the old standby of "meet violence with violence."

In times of personal crisis, I find it very hard to sit still and do nothing. So I don't know if this fits the situation, and definitely don't think it would be for the best, but I could see being completely freaked out if I was the parent of a surviving child at Sandy Hook; I would be traumatized and simply be unable to sit around hoping it didn't happen again. If this meant filing a lawsuit to hurry along change, then I might, without even realizing what I was doing, do it. It doesn't feel to me that the answer is having a bunch of armed guards at public schools in this country...

No, I don't want armed guards at schools either.

The ONLY thing I could see justifiable is possibly coming to terms with the fact that some of the children who were there/witnesses might never be mental able to cope with going back to that school and either building a new school OR having a foundation set up to pay for private schooling for those kids who would not be able to return to the school. The school is K-4, so most kids would be moving on soon enough and the $100 million could easily fund scholarships for those kids. No single family should be given that money.

People are just messed up to even think of sueing when they're got their little 6 year old STILL ALIVE. It is just sickening. So screwed up. So wrong.

 

[zoebartlett]

I can't even begin to imagine what the kids, parents, and families of the students at SHES must be going through (or the townspeople as a whole). I also can't imagine anyone actually suing over this tragedy. You can't predict the future. You can't completely protect anyone from this type of violence. I would imagine that this school did what others are required to do: try as best they can to inform staff and students of what to do in an emergency and practice monthly drills to prepare them for worst-case scenarios. Schools around the country are looking into their safety procedures and seeing what more they can do. I'm sure the staff did what they've trained to do to protect the children as best they could.

I can't find fault for anyone at SHES. I think it might have been a knee-jerk reaction and the need for *some* type of justice, but it doesn't seem right. I'd assume that this family needs to blame *someone* and hold him accountable for his actions, but the person who committed this horrific crime is no longer here.

 

[HollyS]

There is no answer as to why psychotics shoot innocent children - - or anyone else, for that matter.

There are no real precautions that can be taken that will ensure safety from a psychotic, bent upon creating this kind of horror.

HE DIDN'T CARE ABOUT HIMSELF OR ANYONE ELSE. He had no reason to stop, so he didn't. No one, outside of someone with their own gun, and unobserved by the killer, would be able to stop him. And we all know putting guns in our schools is the wrong solution. So there you have it.

Lawsuits like this are meant to stir up our passions, get us working on "solutions". There aren't any. I know, because I live where such a massacre took place. More than 20 years ago. They still happen. Every year. Everywhere.

 

[yennyfire]

Ah, this just sickens me. I can see the parents asking for mental health care for the child, but $100 million is just ridiculous. They should be busy hugging their child, not running to court to make money from this horrible incident.

What the hell? Are they seriously trying to make a paycheck out of this?!?

This....

I don't even have words.

 

[KaeKae]

I am actually thinking that the family involved is being taken advantage of at this point. I can only imagine what all of them are going through, from the child on up through the generations. They've been through a nightmare, that they probably keep replaying in there heads, over the past couple weeks, and now some one with negative moral scruples has zeroed in and is capitalizing on their fear and confusion. Who knows how many of the families he tried to get to before finding this one? And, how much did it take to work them worked up enough in order to get them to sign on for this lawsuit?

I know, I may be 100% wrong on this, but I don't want to believe the family involved is really thinking clearly right now.

 

[partgypsy]

It just seems wrong. And an insult to the parents who did lose a child, or the family members of workers who literally gave their life trying to protect the children. What will this lawsuit accomplish, other than bankrupting the state?

 

[diamondseeker2006]

Evil produces more evil. Sad but true. These people are simply opportunists and their child has not been any more adversely affected than the rest that had to bear witness to this. Most are right; they should simply be thankful that their own child was spared. These types of horrific things are as random as the weather. You can't predict them and you can't completely guard against them. If I had lost my own child in this nightmare I would be beyond outrage at the filing of this suit. It's disgusting and shameful. I hope they feel the full backlash of the entire community for this. I can't imagine them getting a favorable ruling in this case.

Totally agree with this and the other similar posts. There are SCUM everywhere, and that includes the attorney and parents.

 

[mary poppins]

The attorney withdrew the lawsuit, at least temporarily.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/01/justice/connecticut-sandy-hook-lawsuit/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

 

[minousbijoux]

Okay it appears I was wrong and he is pretty scummy, as his reasoning for dropping the lawsuit was death threats. I could almost understand that, but then he explained that he hadn't gone after the NRA in the first place because he was concerned about death threats. That's it, he just lost all credibility with me. Yuck, I have to go take a shower now.

 

[Regular Guy]

Honestly? I threw up in my mouth a little when I read it. Disgusting. I would be on my knees 24/7 thanking the Almighty my child was spared, not trying to make a payday out of it.

Confirming source of phrase...

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=throw up a little bit in my mouth


Ira Z.