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Sunday was the deadline for sending notice of intent to file certain kinds of lawsuits response to the April 20 massacre at Columbine High School in Jefferson County, and quite a few such notices were sent.
That's no surprise. It's the American way -- we unite in sympathy and grief during a tragedy, then divide to fight it out in the courtroom afterward. The list of possible defendants was predictable: sheriff's office, school board and administration, gun manufacturers, video-game producers and the like.
One pleasant surprise was that several parents who lost children did not participate in the litigation.
Given the creativity of the American bar, though, we probably haven't seen the last of the proposed litigation. On any day in the near future, we could be reading about new lawsuits:
· A claim against the Colorado General Assembly and the Colorado Department of Education for the enactment and enforcement of the Compulsory School Attendance Law and a provision of the state School Finance Act which uses attendance as a basis for state payments to local school districts.
These odious provisions,
the preliminary filing
charges, more or less required our children to attend
school, and in this case, a school where horrible things
happened.
Had these pernicious laws not been in effect, our
children might well have stayed safely at home that day, or
else spent that day hanging out in shopping malls, video
arcades or skateboard parks, where again, they would not
have been subjected to dangers now well known.
It was filed by parents whose children were not injured on April 20, and asks for up to $500 million per household in compensatory damages, with punitive damages to be set by the court.
· The parents of nearly 100 uninjured students, along with various teachers and staff, announced plans to sue several hundred television stations, and at least one network, for broadcasting a surveillance video from the school cafeteria.
The plaintiffs allege that the video production uses
our likenesses for commercial gain without due
compensation,
and they ask that an equitable
distribution of royalties be made to plaintiffs.
· The Colorado Department of Transportation and the Jefferson County Road and Bridge Department were named in a class-action suit.
The filing alleges that on or about April 20, 1999,
the defendants caused certain thoroughfares to be open to
the public, thereby allowing certain persons access to
Columbine High School for the purposes of murder and
mayhem.
Also named in the suit were several asphalt and concrete
companies, which contributed to the access negligently
provided by said defendants.
· One group of plaintiffs, identified only as the
Memorial Enforcement Association,
plans to sue the
U.S. Geological Survey, the Colorado Mountain Club and the
party or process generally known as the Laramide
Orogeny.
Their initial pleading points out that the flower
known commonly as the columbine or culverwort (Aquilegia
coerulea) grows profusely throughout the Sawatch Range of
the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, a circumstance which must
be viewed as symbolic.
Then they proceed to note that there are 15 peaks of
elevation exceeding 14,000 feet in the Sawatch Range,
extending from Holy Cross in the north to Shavano in the
south.
The plaintiffs add that it is an affront to public
decency and sentiment that 15 of anything -- crosses,
trees, or even mountain peaks within a given range -- be in
any manner whatsoever associated with Columbine. Only 13
symbols can be permitted, lest the public confuse the
innocent with the guilty and thereby create a memorial that
can be construed to honor the undeserving.
Unlike other suits, this one does not seek monetary
damages. Instead, it asks the state and federal
governments to permit such mining activity as will be
necessary to reduce two of the said 14,000-foot peaks to
less eminent altitudes, thereby leaving only 13 peaks of
over 14,000 feet in the Sawatch Range and thus properly
symbolizing the Columbine Tragedy.
Of course, none of these possible suits has been filed
yet -- and if we're fortunate, none of them ever will be.
But as an attorney friend pointed out to me, as long as
our courts are functioning, there will be no danger that
the Columbine tragedy will be forgotten -- for at least the
next 20 or 30 years, anyway.
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