Parkland, Fla., charges raise liability issues
Experts say Tamaqua should think twice before exposing staff to same scrutiny as deputy who failed to intervene in 2018 school shooting
Questions of liability when it comes to school shootings grew thornier when charges were filed last month against the deputy who failed to intervene during the attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
Tamaqua Area School District, where efforts to implement a policy to voluntarily arm staff continue, ought to pay attention, according to academics who’ve written about the move to arm educators. The Florida charges add a wrinkle to what’s already an issue with more questions than answers.
“The overarching concern for practitioners is that we know they’re going to examine this closely after the fact,” said Spencer Weiler, a professor at the University of Northern Colorado who has published multiple studies related to arming educators.
Scot Peterson was on duty when former Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student Nikolas Cruz entered the building Feb. 14, 2018, and opened fire, killing 17. Peterson can be seen on surveillance video rushing with two staff members toward the building. He pulled his weapon but later retreated and took a position outside, his gun drawn.
Peterson never entered to try to stop the mass shooting. He was charged in early June with child neglect, culpable negligence and perjury — allegations that could
bring a sentence of 100 years.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement spent 14 months investigating Peterson’s response and determined he “did absolutely nothing to mitigate” the shooting, according to Commissioner Rick Swearingen. “There can be no excuse for his complete inaction and no question that his inaction cost lives.”
Luke Cornelius, professor of education law at the University of North Florida, said the charges against Peterson are unusual. They feel like a reaction to the public’s anger about Peterson’s lack of action during the shooting, he said.
“I’d be really surprised if they’d get a conviction out of this,” he said. “I believe that there’s so much outrage over this deputy’s failure to act that there was a huge amount of pressure for the deputy’s office and the prosecutor to bring him to justice.”
Child abuse is rarely a matter of failing to act, Cornelius said. Even neglect charges usually require some deliberate action to ignore a child’s basic needs. But once charges are filed, he said, the outcome becomes less certain.
“If they have a jury trial, anything is possible,” Cornelius said. “It definitely bears watching because if by some surprising leap of legal logic, it does end in a conviction, then that truly changes the color of all of this instantly.”
Tamaqua’s policy to arm staff, known as Policy 705, has been slowed by legal challenges from the teachers union and families in the community.
But school board President Larry Wittig said it’s still on the books and open for discussion and tweaks.
Weiler said districts such as Tamaqua that are intent on moving forward with a gun policy like this must take liability questions seriously and attempt to mitigate as much of that as possible.
If a staff member armed through the school policy opens fire for any reason, the rigor of their training will be heavily scrutinized. Training that most closely resembles what law enforcement officers receive would be safest, but Weiler wonders if that would be enough.
The school should also consider making it very clear what precisely an armed educator should do in an active shooter situation: confront the suspect or protect students.
“If I’m a teacher in this scenario, am I supposed to leave my students and confront the armed intruder or stay and protect my students?” Weiler said. “Regardless of what I do, my actions will be called into question.”
Armed school resource officers or individuals in positions like the deputy in Florida do not have a classroom in their charge so the question of confrontation is easier for them, Weiler said.
Despite the rarity of school shootings, Weiler can understand why some want armed security on the premise. But the liability issue leads him to advise districts to consider armed school resource officers rather than arming staff.
Peterson’s lack of action at Marjory Stoneman Douglas may have given some pause when it comes to considering law enforcement to guard schools. Tamaqua school board members pointed to the Florida shooting repeatedly in defending Policy 705 and the rationale against using school resource officers.
But Weiler said he believes Peterson was an exception. Law enforcement can do more than stop a shooter, he said; officers often build relationships with students, get ahead of threats and help curb other problems like bullying in schools, he said.
“The what-ifs when it comes to arming educators is just endless and they’re all so scary,” Weiler said.