February ruling<\/a>\u00a0by the San Antonio-based 4th Court of Appeals that dismissed the lawsuit.<\/p>\nDPS and the county were sued for negligence by five teachers and 20 students who were at the school but not in the classrooms where the shootings occurred.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost were barricaded in nearby classrooms and could hear the gunfire, and some saw the shooter as he moved through the campus. The shooter also fired into the windows of at least one of the classrooms where the appellants were located,\u201d the appeals court noted. \u201cSeveral appellants lost friends and cousins in the shooting, and others were physically injured during the evacuation. All were traumatized.\u201d<\/p>\n
The lawsuit argued that DPS and Uvalde County failed to protect students and teachers \u2014 an allegation, the court acknowledged, \u201cwe quite frankly cannot disagree with.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even so, the appeals court said, their lawsuit argued that DPS and the county acted negligently under the Texas Tort Claims Act \u2014 a law that did not apply to their claims.<\/p>\n
Students and teachers alleged that law enforcement officers failed to use their communication equipment and protective gear as they waited more than an hour\u00a0to intervene and protect those inside the elementary school.<\/p>\n
They also alleged that responders used \u201cdefective operational equipment in a manner that delayed rescue, causing distinct injury,\u201d because radios could be used only within a 10-foot radius of the building.<\/p>\n
Students and teachers were injured \u201cnot only by the shooter\u2019s conduct, but also by the delayed rescue itself,\u201d the lawsuit said.<\/p>\n
The appeals court ruled that under the Tort Claims Act, students and teachers had to show that the \u201cuse of the property must have actually caused the plaintiff\u2019s injury.\u201d<\/p>\n
The lawsuit did not present evidence that properly functioning radios would have minimized or eliminated the delay in the rescue, the court ruled.<\/p>\n
In addition, many of the lawsuit\u2019s claims revolved around law enforcement\u2019s failure to use body armor, shields, firearms, and protective gear. However, \u201cit is well-established that non-use of property\u201d does not waive the county\u2019s and the Department of Public Safety\u2019s immunity from lawsuits under the tort act, the appeals court ruled.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs judges, we are bound by the maxim that \u2018the waiver of governmental immunity is a matter addressed to the Legislature, not the courts,\u2019\u201d the opinion said.<\/p>\n
The Texas Tribune<\/a>\u00a0is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans – and engages with them – about public policy, politics, government, and statewide issues<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Texas Supreme Court on Friday rejected an appeal by Robb Elementary students and teachers who argued failures…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352081,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[125455,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-352080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-125455","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352080\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}