Teacher injured in Oxford shooting is suing the district and former school officials. Here’s what you need to know

The teacher who was injured in Shooting at Oxford High School filed a lawsuit against the district and five former school officials.

The lawsuit says Molly Darnell filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the Oxford Community School District for “recklessly creating or increasing the risk of a mass shooting.”

This lawsuit comes nearly three years after the November 30, 2021 shooting that killed four students and injured seven others. Darnell was the only teacher shot during the attack.

The lawsuit also names five former school officials, including a former school counselor Shawn Hopkins and former Dean of Students Mikołaj Ejak. These two school principals met with the shooter, Ethan Crumbley, who was 15 at the time of the shooting, and his parents on the day of the attack and decided to allow him to return to the classroom.

The lawsuit also names Tim Throne and Ken Weaver, who are former superintendents, and Steven Wolf, a former principal.

The lawsuit alleges that the school district had no choice but to send the shooter back to the classroom that day because they followed a policy that said students could not be sent home or kept in a counselor’s office. unless there were disciplinary issues.”

“The truth, however, is that school officials increased the threat by releasing the shooter back to the school’s students from a safe location,” according to the lawsuit. “They did so even though they knew the shooter intended to harm himself and/or others. School officials increased the threat to Oxford High School students and staff by releasing him from a safe zone at gunpoint an unsearched backpack containing a deadly weapon that the shooter was carrying out his suicidal or homicidal plans.”

Darnell, who decided to switch from her high school job to work at Oxford Virtual Academy after the shooting, claims there were “warning signs of impending violence that school officials ignored and/or minimized.”

On November 16, Wolf allegedly emailed Oxford parents and said, “I know I’m expendable here, but there is absolutely no threat at HS…Big assumptions were made based on several social media posts. assumptions have evolved into exaggerated rumors,” the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit also alleges that on the day the email was sent, Throne made an announcement over the school’s public address system and instructed students to “stop spreading rumors and relying on information on social media and assure listeners that there are no threats that could pose any danger”. a threat to them at Oxford High School.”

Sagittarius regarding drawings commissioned by him and his diary were discussed in the lawsuit. Journalwhich detailed his plans for a mass shooting, was in his backpack, which was never searched.

“At no time did Ejak or Hopkins search EC’s backpack or locker to determine whether EC was armed and dangerous or whether he had immediate access to a deadly weapon that he could use to harm himself or others,” the lawsuit says.

According to the lawsuit, Hopkins and Ejak should have known that the shooter posed a danger to himself and others and that failing to search his backpack would increase the risk to students and staff.

“Defendant OCSD and its administrators adopted, implemented, and complied with an unconstitutional policy that resulted in EC being released from a secure counseling setting where he was under safe supervision and where his movement and activities were restricted, and reinstated to the classroom despite “knowing that he is experiencing a mental health crisis, is obsessed with guns and gun violence, has access to firearms, and is committed to being a danger to himself and others,” the lawsuit reads.

As a result of the school officials’ actions, Darnell experienced “terror, shock, excruciating pain, fear, trauma, severe emotional distress, scarring and disfigurement, loss of wages, loss of earning capacity and future harm, including the need for ongoing mental health treatment.” health counseling,” the lawsuit reads.

The shooter was convicted life imprisonment without the possibility of parole in December 2023, and his parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, were sentenced 10-15 years in prisonbecoming the first parents in the US to be held criminally responsible for the mass shooting of their child.

This lawsuit comes after families of the Oxford High School shooting demanded: state-led investigation to a shootout and the referee clears the way almost $55 million in compensation for victims. In a separate lawsuit the school district filed against its insurance company, a judge ruled that each bullet that was fired and hit someone during the shooting was an individual event, meaning each injured victim should receive $5 million.