Victims’ families to get $1M each from district
The families of the 17 students and staff killed in the Parkland school massacre each will receive slightly more than $1 million from the Broward School District, according to a settlement agreement.
The School Board will formally vote Tuesday on two settlement agreements stemming from the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School — ending a three-anda-half year saga between the school district and the victims’ families.
The first settlement between the School Board and the families of the 17 murdered and the 34 injured and traumatized by the shooting says the School Board will pay a total of $25 million in three installments. The first $8.3 million will be paid within 60 days of the agreements’ effective date, the second payment a year later and the final the third year.
The agreement breaks down totals for each of the 51 payments.
The 17 families whose children or spouses were killed each will receive $1,020,917, while those who were injured will receive from $22,688 to $776,904.
The second settlement pertains to Anthony Borges, who was among the most critically injured and is not included in the larger lawsuit. Borges will need a lifetime of medical care, his attorney Alex Arreaza has argued.
Borges, along with his parents Royer Borges and Emely Delfin, will receive a total of $1,250,000 within 60 days rather than receiving the sum in payments, the agreement says.
Neither agreement prevents the families of the killed and the injured and traumatized from pursuing further legal action against other parties involved.
The families still have pending cases against former school district employees, security monitors Andrew Medina and David Taylor, and the Broward Sheriff ’s Office and School Resource Officer Scot Peterson.
In recent weeks, Fred Guttenberg, father of slain 14-year-old Jaime Guttenberg, won a $127.5 million settlement in a case that involved tips to the FBI about Nikolas Cruz, the gunman, that were not followed up on.
Cruz pleaded guilty to all 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder. A jury will decide whether Cruz receives the death penalty or life in prison.