cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/3089104
NEWPORT NEWS — The Newport News Education Association President condemned the premise of the school division’s motion to dismiss Abigail Zwerner’s pending $40 million lawsuit.
The motion was filed last week by attorneys representing the School Board and argues that Zwerner, who was shot in her classroom at Richneck Elementary in January by a 6-year-old student, is only entitled to file a worker’s compensation claim because the injury she sustained from the shooting is a “workplace injury,” and that the shooting was a hazard of the job.
You guys saying “well are they wrong?” Are missing the point, the lawyer is attempting to normalize school shootings, and he’s trying to do this in order to let the school get away with not taking the appropriate steps to prevent this incident from happening.
Not fair to blame the lawyer though. He’s hired to defend them to the best of his ability.
You want to be mad. Be mad at the school that agreed that this is the defense they agreed to go for.
You know, fuck that. I don’t agree. The lawyer is willfully making people and society worse in this defense, consciously. That is indefensible and condemnable.
There’s nothing stopping lawyers from dropping clients that make them go against their morals, so either the lawyer has no morals or their morals weigh less than the paycheck they’ll get.
They’re there to do their job. Creating the best defense possible. Why is that not fair given that the prosecution will do everything in their power to maximize damages?
I don’t agree with the defense either. But who am I to say they can’t have one? It’s for the court to decide what happens next. I fully expect the prosecution, and the court to slam the defense to the ground.
Everyone has the right to the best defense possible. That’s the only way it works.
The defense does everything they can for their client. The prosecution does everything they can for theirs. And somewhere in the middle you’ll often find justice.
No, I choose to blame the guy making money by defending the status quo.
He could have chosen an honorable career, instead chose to defend scumbags for $$$.
Again. Either everyone is entitled to the best defense possible. Or no one is. Because who’s going to decide who can get a good defense and not?
Do you know how many people have been tried for crimes they didn’t commit? People have been falsely accused of rape and gone to trial.
Do they not deserve a good lawyer? Or is your moral compass going to decide ahead of each trial who is innocently accused or not to determine if they are allowed a lawyer or not?
Calm down, Clarence Darrow, this is a civil case.
Someone is spending money on lawyers instead of spending money to keep their employees safe.
So what?
So your claims don’t apply.
No they still apply. Someone is having to defend themselves in a court. Doesn’t matter if it’s civil or criminal.
You can’t have a court where only the plaintif is allowed a lawyer.
So this normalization extends than to lawyer offices too right…?
To be fair how is it the schools fault if muricans are retarded with their gun laws?
The lawsuit is based on that she told the school multiple times about this kid, but no action was taken. That the schools negligence is the cause of her injury.
Rather than this being a random shooting
and our liability laws
Yeah, that makes sense. This filling isn’t wrong to attempt, but there’s also no reason to not believe negligence wasn’t involved in protecting their teachers. I doubt the judge will dismiss based on this reasoning. That’s what the trial is for. I don’t blame the attorney for trying though, and I don’t doubt the reasoning will be a very large part of their defense in the end.
Well, okay then. Did the school do everything it could to mitigate this professional hazard?
Let’s see the “school shooting” part of the risk assessment, the prevention steps taken, the training, and so on.
Time to bring in OSHA
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Yeah, this argument is likely going to backfire for the school.
Do the ALICE drills count?
Workplace injury?? It’s a school, not a fucking shooting range.
I’d love to see the data on deaths at shooting ranges vs schools. And by “love” I mean that I’ll probably be queasy to learn more people die at schools than shooting ranges.
i mean…there is a LOT more security/safety measures in a shooting range Because there are a lot more guns. even if someone went on a killing spree they would be shot by one of the other dozen people holding a loaded weapon. not defending school shootings.
I expect nothing else but for the judge and prosecution to absolutely dunk on that defense
If we’re not going to enact common sense gun laws and protections for the public, then it is a workplace injury. She should still be allowed to sue those responsible for not protecting her and the children in her care, but when you normalize school shootings this is what you get. If a cop can say getting shot is a workplace injury and receive compensation for the rest of his life, so should she.
If I understand the article correctly they’re trying to say it’s a workplace injury to cap the payout to something lower than she was trying to get.
The way the law is set up (and thus the reason the lawyers are arguing it) is that you can’t sue your employer for a workplace injury, it is purely a workers compensation (insurance) claim, and those do not pay any millions of dollars, and also the school would be covered by their insurance.
Capitalism demands reducing human lives to resources.
Were they at work when the injury occurred? Check Were there safeguards that the workplace could have done to prevent the injury? Check.
They actually searched the kid for a gun and didn’t find it because it was hidden in his pants.
“Safeguards” lol. In America, gun safety lock is safeguard enough.
Wanting to not get shot at work is so woke…
yeah man the woke libtards have gone too far, do they really expect to survive their jobs?? so privileged!
Only in in gun nut America would anyone in their right mind would call being fucking shot a ‘workplace injury’. I mean if this is what is expected then they should be making 100K+ a year since they face being shot more than being a cop.
James Graves, the president of the Newport News teachers union
Graves said, “These lawyers have started a significant hurricane in our district by saying that being shot is part of what teachers signed up for.”
this is grim but when i saw his last name, the first thing i thought of was nominative determinism theory (hypothesis that people tend to gravitate towards areas of work which reflect their names.)
lastly, at what point does something become labeled a “work hazard”? i’m looking forward to seeing how this case pans out. also, i wonder how insurance companies are going to react to this.
What happened to holding the parent liable for what their kids do? Like the Oxford MI shooting the parents were charged. Lets keep doing that, keep charging the parents for the kids crimes. Maybe parents will take a more vested interest in what the fuck their kids are doing, watching, websites they are viewing.
Charging parents for kids crimes will just be used as a weapon to lock up parents that authorities don’t like. The only way to stop school shootings is to have better gun laws in the first place, as unpopular as that might be in America.
Maybe true to an small extent, but if you own a firearm and have a kid in the house, it’s your responsibility to ensure they can’t access it. Responsible gun ownership should be the norm and expectation, and to an extent legally required as well.
In that particular case, 100% the parents should be responsible as they failed in their duty to lock up their firearm like responsible firearm owners. It’s the latter part that’s important, it doesn’t matter if they were also parents or not.
You can’t apply a blanket rule to hold parents responsible for all of their kids criminal actions. It will lead to much more child abuse and worse.
I don’t think anyone is saying they should be responsible because he performed a criminal action. They are saying they should be held responsible, at least as accomplices, because they facilitated access to the firearm that was used in the act. Parents obviously shouldn’t be held responsible if their kids purchase weed from someone and use it where they had no involvement or knowledge, for example, but that’s not what happened in this case.
So cops being shot is too?
I wonder if you’re a postal worker and get shot by another postal worker if it’s a workplace injury. If that’s a workplace hazard.
Isn’t any injury at a workplace by definition, a workplace-injury?
The question is who is liable? Seems like people think the employee is liable by default if it’s branded a workplace injury.
This kid has major Boondocks vibes.
That character was inspired by this real life kid.
Are. They. Wrong.
Yes. If it’s a workplace injury, OSHA has the authority to come in and dictate mitigation measures.
Clearly this isn’t true.
There are mitigation measures! Unfortunately, OSHA can only dictate mitigation measures inside the workplace.
Yes. Being shot is not part of the job description.
Stabbed with a pencil? Sure. Hit with a chair a kid threw? Okay. Harmed with an actual weapon? That they searched the kid for and didn’t find? Nope, sorry. I can’t accept that work hazard.
I’m pretty sure mass shootings are actually addressed in the handbook.
Trying to downplay a mass shooting? IDK Einstein, you tell me.
They’re downplaying it because this is normal.
Getting mowed down by a mass shooter is a workplace hazard because this is a shithole country where people die to gun violence every day.
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Huh? Did you read the article? The district is arguing that it’s a workplace injury to prevent paying out more money.
