LEAP FOR JOY US schools taking out shooter cover
GUN VIOLENCE CONTINUES
Insurance broker Paul Marshall can count on his phone ringing in the aftermath of a school shooting. Since the February 14 shooting at a Florida high school in which 17 people were killed and more than a dozen injured, seven South Florida school districts have bought $3 million (R36 million) worth of “active shooter” cover that Marshall’s Ohio-based employer, the McGowan Companies, began selling in 2016.
“Every day we get a phone call from another school district,” Marshall said.
The insurance, backed by XL Catlin, covers expenses tied to shootings in places such as office buildings and concert halls, and is increasingly gaining traction with schools.
It pays up to $250 000 per shooting victim for death and serious injuries, such as blindness or total disability, with extra medical coverage depending on how much insurance a district buys.
There is no detailed survey of insurance coverage at US schools, but insurers say it is only within about the past year that more schools have been seeking “active shooter” and “active assailant” policies. School districts often find their general liability policies fall short on coverage for the cascade of bills after a violent incident like the mass shooting last month in Parkland, Florida, school administrators say.
The costs can include victim lawsuits, building repairs, legal fees, medical expenses, trauma counselling and even reconstruction of buildings where bloodshed occurred.
“This is a very sort of unique and specific issue that we are facing,” Chris Parker, who heads a unit at Beazley PLC that writes policies for political violence, terrorism and other risks, said about coverage for US schools.
McGowan Companies sold three times more policies in February than a year before, Marshall said. –