Chatanuga, Tennessee, the State Statute School, agreed to pay a 11-year-old boy of $ 100,000 to resolve the federal lawsuit, saying he incorrectly told a police student for allegedly a threat to mass violence.
The incident happened at the beginning of the school year, when the junior, which is autism, overheard that two students were talking. . The younger looked at another student who seemed to say so and replied to him. The students then reported that the junior threatened to shoot at school.
Administrators stated that he could return to school the next day, but a few hours later the deputy sheriff found him at a family birthday and handcuffed at the restaurant parking.
News Propublica and WPLN wrote about the case last October as part greater investigation In the new law in Tennessee, which threats massacre at school.
According to the settlement, also the chatanugo preparatory school agreed to implement the training On how to cope with threats of mass violence at school, including reports only the “real” threats of the police and differentiation between “clearly harmless statements” and “quick” violence.
The federal judge will hold a final hearing on the settlement on July 1. According to the family lawyer, this is the first known monetary settlement in the case that disputes this law. Chattanooga Prep did not immediately respond to a request for commentary organizations.
The mother’s mother, Tori, said the Gorky settlement. He is still afraid when he sees police cars, he reminded of the evening that he had been delayed by the minors. We only use the torah name at her request to prevent her son. His case was dismissed in the juvenile court in December.
But Tori said it was happy that school staff would get training, how to do better in the future.
Credit:
Andrea Morales for PROPBLICA
“I do not want anyone – any child who, any, any parent – to survive or testify,” she said. “Other children will be more protected if they are in this situation.”
The junior lawyers claimed that the school was to blame for informing him from the police as if he had made a real threat, knowing that it wasn’t. “Instead of reporting only to the real threats of mass violence for the police, Chattanooga Prep reports all threats to law enforcement agencies, regardless of justice,” the supplemented version of the lawsuit against the school said. The school did not file a legal complaint.
During the last legislative session, supporters of children with disabilities testified to problems with the law – but legislators did not change the existing charter. Instead They added another similar charter to books that could open the door for children to be charged with tougher punishments.
Justin Gilbert’s family lawyer said he hoped that this settlement would force the legislators to pay attention and make the necessary changes to the law.
“Monetary figures – for the better or worse – can become a policy change engine, and sometimes legislators can respond to it, school districts can respond to it,” Gilbert said. “Then this leads to a deeper view of the settlement conditions and what training is necessary to hope to prevent the arrest of these children and exile unnecessarily.”
