Uvalde school district officials received notice of claim from a California law firm planning to file a $27 billion class action lawsuit. The notice alleges failures on the part of the school district and law enforcement that contributed to the physical and psychological injuries sustained in the May 24 shooting at Robb Elementary School.
The Bonner & Bonner law firm from Sausalito, California, served notice on Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Superintendent Hal Harrell and other members of the school board during a meeting Monday night, KHOU CBS 11 reported. The notice is the first step toward filing a lawsuit. Members of the Uvalde City Council and the County Commissioners are also expected to be alerted to potential litigation.
Attorney Charles Bonner told KENS, “We don’t want to leave any victim behind.” He added that he plans to serve notice to Texas Department of Public Safety and elements of the federal government.
Bonner said the notice indicates plaintiffs will seek $27 billion in damages. “We wanted a number that would approximate the harm that’s been caused,” Bonner told the news outlet.
The San Francisco Bay Area law firm said it represents about a dozen families impacted by the May 24 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School that left 19 children and two teachers dead. The law firm’s website also says it represents the victims of the May 14 mass shooting at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket.
“The shooter’s actions resulted in the savage murder of 19 children, two adults, and countless others with physical and emotional injuries whose impacts have scarred them beyond measure,” the notice states.
The notice cites failures of the school district that could have prevented the attack on the elementary school. As previously reported by Breitbart Texas, school district officials failed to follow their own security policies and ignored maintenance requests to address a broken locking mechanism on the classroom door in question.
In July, school district officials placed Robb Elementary School Principal Mandy Gutierrez on administrative leave following a 77-page report published by the Texas House of Representatives which detailed failures by district officials and law enforcement.
The report noted “systematic failures and egregiously poor decision making” that contributed to the deaths of 21 on May 24, Breitbart Texas reported.
School officials also placed District Police Chief Pete Arredondo on administrative leave in June, Breitbart reported. In July, the district changed the chief’s status to unpaid leave and began steps to potentially terminate his employment.
Following a lengthy delay, the district plans to hold a meeting on Wednesday to determine the chief’s ultimate employment status, KENS reports.
Potential defendants of the planned lawsuit are now on notice regarding the $27 billion in damages.
“We cannot allow these kinds of shooting tragedies to ever occur again,” Bonner told KENS. “It will not bring back 19 10-or 9-year-old children, it will not bring (back) the two teachers. But it will address this tragedy.”
Details regarding the federal, state, and local claims can be found in the report published by KENS.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior news contributor for the Breitbart Texas-Border team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday-morning talk show. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook.