Tyrone N. Butts
APE Reporter
3
Neglect charged in school killing
The ultimate blame in the shooting death of 6-year-old Kayla Rolland by a classmate at a suburban Flint elementary school four years ago will be decided in a Detroit courtroom.
Kayla's mother, Veronica McQueen, is suing one of Michigan's poorest school districts, Beecher Community Schools, the superintendent, the principal of Buell Elementary in Mount Morris, Kayla's first-grade teacher and four other Buell teachers.
U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman will hold a hearing Tuesday to decide if the case will proceed to a jury trial in May.
"I hope and pray this past and continued awareness of my daughter's wrongful death at Buell will serve to make our schools across America safer for all of our children," McQueen said in a statement through one of the four law firms representing her in the suit.
At the time of the killing, in February 2000, the 6-year-old boy who shot Kayla was living in a suspected crack house with an uncle because his mother had been evicted from the family's home. He took a gun from a shoe box that was filled with candy and quarters and carried it to school.
Kayla and her classmate were believed to be the youngest victim and youngest shooter in a classroom shooting.
It became a symbol of the use of illegal guns in America --splashed across newspaper front pages around the world and highlighted by Flint native Michael Moore in his Oscar-winning documentary, Bowling for Columbine.
It was a low moment for a district that remains mired in problems, including a $1.8 million deficit.
Second to the Covert school district in southwest Michigan, more children are living in poverty in the Beecher district than anywhere in Michigan: 38 percent. Just 26 percent of students passed the 2002 Michigan Educational Assessment Program test --among the 10 worst-performing districts in the state.
Buell Elementary was closed in 2002 because of a budget deficit. McQueen's lawyers had to get a court order to enter the school to see where the shooting occurred two years earlier.
Last week, the school board voted to close Beecher High School, built in the 1930s.
The kids don't need educators waving the white flag or talking about doomsday, Superintendent Kenneth Jackson said. They need positive reinforcement and being uplifted.
Jackson, who was the high school principal when Rolland was shot, declined to comment on the lawsuit, as did the school's attorneys.
McQueen's lawyers note that the school's insurance policy would cover any financial judgment, not the troubled district.
The suit claims that teacher negligence allowed a half-dozen children, including Kayla and the boy who shot her, to stay behind in the classroom while she took other students to the school's computer room.
The teacher and superintendent, the lawsuit claims, knew of (the shooter's) violent history yet did nothing to protect students.
McQueen's lawyers have spent hours deposing nearly every teacher and administrator at Buell and turned up evidence that the boy who shot Kayla had many behavior problems, had stabbed at least two students with a pencil and was involved in a fight with another student the day before Kayla was killed.
Among the proposed witnesses in McQueen's suit is former President Bill Clinton, who spoke out against the shooting and gun violence, and met with McQueen to express his condolences in 2000.
Much of the case hinges on whether the boy's brother told a gym teacher that the 6-year-old had brought a gun to school before the shooting. District officials adamantly insist they didn't know until afterward.
The shooter, who is now 10, lives with his brother at a center for troubled children in Flint, where they attend classes and meet regularly with a therapist.
Their attorney, Steve Lazzio, said he is trying to arrange for the boys to be adopted by a relative in Missouri.
Lazzio spurned a request by McQueen's lawyers to force the brothers to sit for an interview in the civil case or testify at trial.
The kids are remarkably well-adjusted, said Lazio, who added that they like to watch basketball and act like normal kids. You keep your fingers crossed. I think they will make it.
The boys don't see their parents. Their mother, Tamarla Owens, gave up her parental rights to the boys, but has custody of their younger sister. Their father, Dedric Owens, remains in prison in Elkton, Ohio, through at least February.
The boy was never charged, but the U.S. Attorney's Office prosecuted four of his relatives --including the father, grandmother and two aunts --for drug dealing. They had been the subject of a Drug Enforcement Agency investigation prior to the shooting.
************
In case you haven't figured it out by now, the shooter was a niglet.
T.N.B.
Neglect charged in school killing
The ultimate blame in the shooting death of 6-year-old Kayla Rolland by a classmate at a suburban Flint elementary school four years ago will be decided in a Detroit courtroom.
Kayla's mother, Veronica McQueen, is suing one of Michigan's poorest school districts, Beecher Community Schools, the superintendent, the principal of Buell Elementary in Mount Morris, Kayla's first-grade teacher and four other Buell teachers.
U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman will hold a hearing Tuesday to decide if the case will proceed to a jury trial in May.
"I hope and pray this past and continued awareness of my daughter's wrongful death at Buell will serve to make our schools across America safer for all of our children," McQueen said in a statement through one of the four law firms representing her in the suit.
At the time of the killing, in February 2000, the 6-year-old boy who shot Kayla was living in a suspected crack house with an uncle because his mother had been evicted from the family's home. He took a gun from a shoe box that was filled with candy and quarters and carried it to school.
Kayla and her classmate were believed to be the youngest victim and youngest shooter in a classroom shooting.
It became a symbol of the use of illegal guns in America --splashed across newspaper front pages around the world and highlighted by Flint native Michael Moore in his Oscar-winning documentary, Bowling for Columbine.
It was a low moment for a district that remains mired in problems, including a $1.8 million deficit.
Second to the Covert school district in southwest Michigan, more children are living in poverty in the Beecher district than anywhere in Michigan: 38 percent. Just 26 percent of students passed the 2002 Michigan Educational Assessment Program test --among the 10 worst-performing districts in the state.
Buell Elementary was closed in 2002 because of a budget deficit. McQueen's lawyers had to get a court order to enter the school to see where the shooting occurred two years earlier.
Last week, the school board voted to close Beecher High School, built in the 1930s.
The kids don't need educators waving the white flag or talking about doomsday, Superintendent Kenneth Jackson said. They need positive reinforcement and being uplifted.
Jackson, who was the high school principal when Rolland was shot, declined to comment on the lawsuit, as did the school's attorneys.
McQueen's lawyers note that the school's insurance policy would cover any financial judgment, not the troubled district.
The suit claims that teacher negligence allowed a half-dozen children, including Kayla and the boy who shot her, to stay behind in the classroom while she took other students to the school's computer room.
The teacher and superintendent, the lawsuit claims, knew of (the shooter's) violent history yet did nothing to protect students.
McQueen's lawyers have spent hours deposing nearly every teacher and administrator at Buell and turned up evidence that the boy who shot Kayla had many behavior problems, had stabbed at least two students with a pencil and was involved in a fight with another student the day before Kayla was killed.
Among the proposed witnesses in McQueen's suit is former President Bill Clinton, who spoke out against the shooting and gun violence, and met with McQueen to express his condolences in 2000.
Much of the case hinges on whether the boy's brother told a gym teacher that the 6-year-old had brought a gun to school before the shooting. District officials adamantly insist they didn't know until afterward.
The shooter, who is now 10, lives with his brother at a center for troubled children in Flint, where they attend classes and meet regularly with a therapist.
Their attorney, Steve Lazzio, said he is trying to arrange for the boys to be adopted by a relative in Missouri.
Lazzio spurned a request by McQueen's lawyers to force the brothers to sit for an interview in the civil case or testify at trial.
The kids are remarkably well-adjusted, said Lazio, who added that they like to watch basketball and act like normal kids. You keep your fingers crossed. I think they will make it.
The boys don't see their parents. Their mother, Tamarla Owens, gave up her parental rights to the boys, but has custody of their younger sister. Their father, Dedric Owens, remains in prison in Elkton, Ohio, through at least February.
The boy was never charged, but the U.S. Attorney's Office prosecuted four of his relatives --including the father, grandmother and two aunts --for drug dealing. They had been the subject of a Drug Enforcement Agency investigation prior to the shooting.
************
In case you haven't figured it out by now, the shooter was a niglet.
T.N.B.
Last edited by a moderator:
