LEGAL Florida Supreme Court rules against Parkland families

[Dennis Olson]

www.foxnews.com /us/florida-supreme-court-parkland-ruling

Florida Supreme Court rules against Parkland families
Louis Casiano
3-4 minutes

Florida's highest court on Thursday capped the amount a school board can be forced to pay the victims and families who filed lawsuits against the district at $300,000 following the 2018 Parkland mass shooting at a high school.

The state Supreme Court unanimously agreed with the Broward County School Board that the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School -- which killed 17 students and staff members and injured 17 others -- should be viewed as a single incident, the Miami Herald reported.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs argued each gunshot from alleged gunman Nikolas Cruz were separate incidents and that their clients should each receive $200,000. The justices disagreed, saying mass shootings should be viewed as one incident, thereby placing a limit on how much government agencies can be forced to pay under an under a state sovereign-immunity law, according to the newspaper.

“The phrase ‘same incident or occurrence’ is most reasonably understood as referring to the criminal event as a whole, not to the smaller segments of time and action that make up the crime against each individual victim, because this is the way that we commonly talk about this type of tragic occurrence — as a single event with multiple victims,” the ruling said.

“Additionally, this reading fits most naturally given the context of [a subsection of the law], which is designed to limit the state’s liability to a set amount for all claims arising out of an ‘incident or occurrence,’ after which all claimants must seek additional compensation from the Legislature.”

Their opinions were issued for the Broward County case and a Florida Department of Children and Families case that dealt with similar legal questions about the liability of public agencies in the event of mass shootings, the Herald reported.

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The FDCF case stemmed from a 2010 shooting in which a man fatally shot his wife and her four children and wounded another child in Plam Beach County.

“Today’s decision in no way devalues the lives of those injured or killed as a result of mass shootings, or the harm suffered as a result of such tragedies,” the court wrote in the Palm Beach County case. “It is a decision that is rendered within the narrow confines of Florida law relating to the Legislature’s limited waiver of sovereign immunity.”

 

[Cardinal]

While I agree the ruling is sort of common sense, the school had more than enough warning about the shooter, and imho, enabled him. Someone should be able to sock it to them where it hurts.

 

[Raggedyman]

but saint Breanna on the other hand is good for a cool 12 MILL . . . she could have sold crack 24/7/365 for 10 consecutive lifetimes and never made that much money. . . but multiple white children with their entire lives ahead of them??? well they're only worth $300K . . . . COLLECTIVELY

 

[zeker]

but saint Breanna on the other hand is good for a cool 12 MILL . . . she could have sold HER crack 24/7/365 for 10 consecutive lifetimes and never made that much money. . . but multiple white children with their entire lives ahead of them??? well they're only worth $300K . . . . COLLECTIVELY

fixed it 4 ya

 

[hiwall]

So each family gets only $18,000? Bizarre.

 

[Plain Jane]

Parkland's Promise Program created the flashpoint but THE SYSTEM is the problem. This shooter was discharged to Parkland from an alternative school for behavioral problems. The teachers at that alternative school objected to his release. They were overruled. Why? In order for the school to maintain their certification they must show "progress" for a certain number of students and apparently he was the best of the worst.

I retired from teaching high school in 2011. I know first hand that no outside agency, facility, etc. has to share pertinent information with the school and public schools do not have the right to refuse admission to the student. I have experienced some frightening situations because of this.

 

[Bps1691]

While I agree the ruling is sort of common sense, the school had more than enough warning about the shooter, and imho, enabled him. Someone should be able to sock it to them where it hurts.

But it won't hurt those in the School system or the government who made the stupid decisions for "fairness and diversity" that allowed the shooter to roam free and not be placed into a perminate permanent program to help him or keep him from harming others.

Like always, any money will come from any liability insurance and the public taxpayers.

When it comes to these government clowns at any level, they never pay or are punished for their actions!

 

[Plain Jane]

allowed the shooter to roam free and not be placed into a perminate program to help him or keep him from harming others.

These permanent programs have pretty much been eliminated.

 

[Dennis Olson]

placed into a perminate program to help him or keep him from harming others.

Um, "permanent".

 

[Bps1691]

These permanent programs have pretty much been eliminated.

There are still several around our AO. My wife's second career was working as a Behavioral Education Teacher (specialized type of special education) for almost 20 years.

When she changed careers, she went back to college and took the courses she needed to add the certifications to her teaching certificates.

She started in a small school system (think of that as level I) and as a calling moved up to the regional superintendent’s program for the region. You can think of this as a Level 2 program. The kids she has worked with there were two steps away from actual prison. She usually had from 8 to 10 children of middle school age and had two specialized assistants working with her in the classroom.

For the last 5 years of her career, she moved up to a specialized level III program ran by a non-profit and funded by the State and Federal government grants. These years were by far the worst for her. Several of these kids ended up in jail or dead and the rest just road out the program until they got of age and cleared by the court systems that had sent them there.

 

[Bps1691]

Um, "permanent".

I know how typos, grammar and spelling errors are like fingernails on a chalk board to some.

It is interesting how our minds work. Several studies have shown the brain is a code-cracking machine.

“For emaxlpe, it deson’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod aepapr, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer are in the rghit pcale. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit pobelrm.

S1M1L4RLY, Y0UR M1ND 15 R34D1NG 7H15 4U70M471C4LLY W17H0U7 3V3N 7H1NK1NG 4B0U7 17.”

Thanks for the catch.



Quote from- Breaking the Code: Why Yuor Barin Can Raed Tihs

 

[Plain Jane]

For the last 5 years of her career, she moved up to a specialized level III program ran by a non-profit and funded by the State and Federal government grants. These years were by far the worst for her. Several of these kids ended up in jail or dead and the rest just road out the program until they got of age and cleared by the court systems that had sent them there.

Your wife must be a very special person! That last assignment was very tough.

 

[Raggedyman]

fixed it 4 ya

iz yo sayin dat she a niggaho zeke???

 

[Kathy in FL]

So each family gets only $18,000? Bizarre.

Won't even be that after the lawyers finish with it. Enough of the families fell into what the lawyers were selling that it screwed the pooch for all of them. That's what happens when you try and make money off of a tragedy. The only people who get rich are the lawyers.

 

[Kathy in FL]

There are still several around our AO. My wife's second career was working as a Behavioral Education Teacher (specialized type of special education) for almost 20 years.

When she changed careers, she went back to college and took the courses she needed to add the certifications to her teaching certificates.

She started in a small school system (think of that as level I) and as a calling moved up to the regional superintendent’s program for the region. You can think of this as a Level 2 program. The kids she has worked with there were two steps away from actual prison. She usually had from 8 to 10 children of middle school age and had two specialized assistants working with her in the classroom.

For the last 5 years of her career, she moved up to a specialized level III program ran by a non-profit and funded by the State and Federal government grants. These years were by far the worst for her. Several of these kids ended up in jail or dead and the rest just road out the program until they got of age and cleared by the court systems that had sent them there.

Has someone nominated her for sainthood yet? My mother was a teacher's aide for 19 years and for most of that she worked with the "at risk for dropping out". These were 6th graders that had already been identified by that age. She still wonders what happened to some of them. She was under no illusion that they would all make it. Most of the kids she loved. Most of their families she came as close to detesting as my mother is capable of.

God bless your wife for all the effort she put in. Sometimes you still need to try even when it is a 99% certainty that it isn't going to work.

 

[Dennis Olson]

Attorneys for the plaintiffs argued each gunshot from alleged gunman Nikolas Cruz were separate incidents

See, here’s the problem. Let’s say that statutorily, a $300,000 payout was the max per incident. Now let’s say 100 shots were fired. At $300,000 per shot, that’s $30,000,000. No school district can pay that.

 

[Bps1691]

Has someone nominated her for sainthood yet? My mother was a teacher's aide for 19 years and for most of that she worked with the "at risk for dropping out". These were 6th graders that had already been identified by that age. She still wonders what happened to some of them. She was under no illusion that they would all make it. Most of the kids she loved. Most of their families she came as close to detesting as my mother is capable of.

God bless your wife for all the effort she put in. Sometimes you still need to try even when it is a 99% certainty that it isn't going to work.

She left a job paying very well to answer this calling.

But she was already a saint because she has put up with me for soon to be 50 years. That shows where she learned her patience and how to handle adversity.

She still has a few of those that she was able to reach contact her around Christmas time. Their stable and productive members of society.

On the sad side, at least once every year or so she'll see one of "her kids" she couldn't reach listed in the crime blotter in the area paper from where she worked. Sadly, it is for criminal offenses or worse yet that have been killed.

 

[Bps1691]

Your wife must be a very special person! That last assignment was very tough.

Yep she sure is. The calling to do it was strong in her so we worked over our lives so she could prepare and then do it.

 

[Dozdoats]

The State will NEVER accept responsibility for its own shortcomings.

 

[Kathy in FL]

The State will NEVER accept responsibility for its own shortcomings.

I tell people don't personify "The State" or corporation or anything else. You'll always be let down. It is the people that have the shortcomings and hide behind inanimate agencies.

 

[hiwall]

The average price for a black life is around $6 million.