Several families of Virginia Tech students killed or injured in last week’s shooting rampage are considering suing the university, alleging that it was negligent in safeguarding the students, Brent Bryson, a lawyer in Las Vegas, said today.
Mr. Bryson said the families had contacted him, and he is gathering facts about the tragedy. He and another lawyer represented plaintiffs several years ago in a suit against the Appalachian School of Law, where a student gunned down the dean, a professor, and another student in January 2002. The school paid $1-million to the victims and their families to settle the case.
Although Virginia Tech, as a public institution, is generally shielded from such litigation under a concept known as sovereign immunity, Mr. Bryson said such immunity might be surmounted if the plaintiffs could prove “gross negligence” by Virginia Tech.
“This appears to me to be gross negligence,” he said of the university’s response to the gunman and the shootings. —Andrea L. Foster
