MARYSVILLE — Attorneys representing the families of the Marysville Pilchuck High School shooting victims filed a claim Friday seeking up to $110 million in damages.
The claim, a precursor to a lawsuit, alleges that the Marysville School District could have prevented the Oct. 24, 2014, killings of four students. It also names as a defendant Raymond Fryberg, the father of the shooter and the owner of the gun that was used.
A key part of the claim is based on discredited statements made by a former substitute teacher.
“We met with the families, the most important thing for them was accountability, and they want to make sure no other school, no other family has to go through that heartbreak,” attorney Julie Kays said in an interview Friday.
Kays is representing the families along with attorney Lincoln Beauregard, both of Connelly Law Offices in Tacoma. They are preparing for a civil trial in the case. The claim filed Friday cites estimated damages between $60 million and $110 million.
“Money is never going to bring back their loved ones and repair their families, but we’re required to put a number, by law,” she said.
Officials in the Marysville School District on Friday said it was too early to comment on the claim. The district has 60 days to respond.
“While our hearts and prayers go out to the families who have suffered this tragedy, we were very disappointed to learn through our attorneys that a claim has been filed,” the district said in a prepared statement. “We have not yet had the opportunity to thoroughly review the claim and thus cannot comment directly on it at this time.”
A major component of the claim revolves around statements by Rosemary Cooper, a substitute teacher who insisted she was told about the shooting in advance by a student, and then warned the school district. When confronted by detectives, however, Cooper’s stories repeatedly changed. Detectives who looked into the details determined that Cooper received no advance warning and that the teen she claimed tipped her off was actually trying to apologize for classmates who were making fun of the sub by sharing altered photos of her on their smart phones.
Even so, Kays maintains the district knew violence was possible and “failed to take precautions to protect kids from this tragedy,” she said. “A lawsuit is designed to search for the truth and ferret out who knew what and when they knew it.”
Cooper’s claims are part of that “knowledge and notice,” she said.
The claim quotes heavily from part of Cooper’s statements to police but does not mention her later recantation. That happened before she was contacted by TV news reporters, at which point she claimed she felt pressured by police to change her story. She also said that detectives had yelled at her in interviews. That prompted police to release audio tapes of their conversations with Cooper. There was no yelling or abuse on the recordings, just her acknowledgement that she may have been confused.
The claim also alleges that the district did not properly supervise Jaylen Fryberg, including the handling of discipline for a fight he was in earlier that month.
The families represented in the claim are those of Andrew Fryberg, Zoe Galasso, Gia Soriano and Shaylee Chuckulnaskit, who were killed, and Nate Hatch, who survived a gunshot to the jaw. Jaylen Fryberg took his own life after killing his friends in a cafeteria at the high school.
The families initially were represented by Seattle attorney Ann Deutscher. Deutscher asked the Tacoma law firm to take over the case, but she still is part of the litigation, Kays said.
In October, Deutscher held a press conference about her quest for public records from the district. The press conference, suggesting the district was hiding something, was timed to coincide with the one-year mark since the shootings, when several community healing events were taking place.
The district on Friday said it continues to work with the city of Marysville and Tulalip Tribes “to move forward in our recovery to help our community heal, unite and grow stronger.”
Those efforts include therapy and support groups, extra counselors in the schools, youth mental health training for district staff and screenings for at-risk students.
Raymond Fryberg, 42, is scheduled to be sentenced Monday in U.S. District Court in Seattle. He was convicted in September of illegally possessing multiple firearms, including the gun used at the high school. Raymond Fryberg was the subject of a 2002 protection order in Tulalip Tribal Court that forbade him from owning guns. Federal prosecutors are seeking a three-year sentence.
Jaylen reportedly took the gun from the center console of his father’s pickup.
Rikki King: 425-339-3449; rking@heraldnet.com.
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