The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Judge dismisses lawsuit by Sandy Hook families
NEWTOWN — A judge has dismissed a wrongful death lawsuit against the town and the school district brought by two families that lost children in the Sandy Hook massacre.
The families’ suit claimed educators failed to follow their own safety protocol when a 20-year-old man shot his way into the locked school.
The judge on Monday sided with Newtown, which argued that educators exercised reasonable discretion in responding to the 2012 slaying of 26 firstgraders and educators at Sandy Hook School.
“To say that the faculty and staff of the school were to act in a prescribed manner in responding to an emergency situation would ... be illogical and in direct contradiction to the very purpose of governmental immunity: allowing for the exercise of judgment without the fear of secondguessing,” state Superior Court Judge Robin Wilson wrote in a 29-page ruling.
The families plan to appeal.
“We will continue to fight for this cause so that, someday, we can live in a world where we know our children are going to come home at the end of the school day,” read a statement released by attorney Donald Papcsy, who represents parents Scarlett Lewis, Neil Heslin and Leonard Pozner. “Hopefully, on appeal, the Supreme Court will hold the same belief.”
The families’ negligence suit against Newtown is separate from a higherprofile wrongful death lawsuit brought by 10 Sandy Hook families against the maker of the AR-15-style rifle used in the shootings. That lawsuit against Remington was thrown out of state Superior Court and is being appealed in state Supreme Court.
Newtown First Selectman Dan Rosenthal declined to comment on the court victory Tuesday, saying he has yet to speak with Monte Frank, one of two attorneys who represent the town and the school district.
Frank, the founder of Team 26, was on the final leg of a 400-mile bicycle ride from Newtown to Washington, D.C., to call for gun control. Frank and Team 26 organize annual rides to the U.S. Capitol in memory of the 20 firstgraders and six educators who were slain at Sandy Hook School.
Frank declined to comment from Washington on Tuesday.
The two families filed a negligence lawsuit against Newtown in 2015. Specifically, the parents charged that the school did not provide certain teachers with keys to lock classroom doors.
In August, the parents received a court order to inspect a classroom folder for a key that would have allowed a substitute teacher to lock her door during the shooting. The parents’ attorneys argued in court that the key in question was missing from the classroom folder and a look inside the folder showed this was true.
Newtown asked the judge to dismiss the case, arguing that shooter Adam Lanza — and no one else — was responsible for the parents’ terrible loss. Newtown argued it was entitled to governmental immunity, because its employees had discretion to use their best judgment.
The judge agreed. “The court ... cannot discount the realities of an emergency and the necessity of discretion in responding to one,” Wilson wrote. “This is precisely why we afford police broad protection.”