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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]What does it mean that the parent is judgment proof. Because he’s a minor? I thought states were starting to go after parents of shooters… I’ve always heard that if a child is hurt on my trampoline I’m liable. But not in this case?[/quote]

It means that they have no means to pay a judgment and if pressed will likely file for bankruptcy.

I heard that the parents of other kids are also [b]suing the school and the teacher who was shot. [/b]Don’t know if any suit has been filed. [/quote]

Why would they sue the teacher?   That's insane![/quote]

Because the teacher knew about the gun and didn’t make what they believe were reasonable efforts to prevent the shooting. It might be a means to attempt to get around legal immunity issues if the school has to defend her. Don’t really know their theories and strategies. I would normally think of a teacher as judgment proof but she has no apparent income yet is not working which makes it a murky situation. [/quote]

Teachers' unions traditionally are supposed to defend teachers in a case.  I don't know if she was a member or not--but that was the unions' big selling point to teachers--to protect you if you are sued.

Are you sure they are suing the teacher and not the school system?  Seems to me that it is the administrators who are mostly at fault--other than the mother, of course.[/quote]

NP here. I read too that a group of parents of students who were in the classroom were considering suing the teacher for the reasons already stated. I would think the public backlash would be serious and I read that a few months ago and haven't read anything re it again. I believe one of the parents has a daughter who was threatened individually by the shooter earlier in the day and she had complained about the boy to the teacher and the teacher told her to sit down.

I definitely think suing the teacher is the wrong approach. It was reported on wavy.com which is a local tv station's website.[/quote]
As a lawyer I would strongly recommend against suing the teacher who was shot. The deep pockets here are the school system and the administrators who were on notice of this kid’s violent behavior and that he had a gun on him that day. You cannot get anything out of suing the teacher that you couldn’t get out of suing the school system and the Richneck administrators, other than tremendous backlash.[/quote]

As a litigator in a government job, I actually think it’s brilliant. Often immunities prevent success in lawsuits against government entities. But negligence by government employees is a different matter. And government entities may be responsible for the torts of their employees. So it’s a back door to get to the government entity. If a suit was filed, and I don’t know if one was, it will be difficult. There are so many bad feelings all around but the teacher and the school will be forced to cooperate because they will be on the same side. [/quote]
I defend one of our local governments in suits brought against it (which generally encompasses conduct by individual agencies and their employees) and I do not see the upside in adding the shot teacher to a potential lawsuit. From what I know about this case the school administrators are easy targets as is the school system (our local school systems get sued all the time). I also understand that the teacher reported the kid’s behavior that day and it was ignored by the school administrators, so if the teacher told the girl to sit down but made the administrators aware he was threatening other students and they said too bad deal with him, I’m not seeing where the teacher is liable. Additionally, any award comes from the same pot of money, there is nothing you can get from suing the teacher that you can’t get from suing the administrators and the school system. [/quote]

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