(NEW YORK) — The highest court in Massachusetts ruled Tuesday the state attorney general can pursue a civil lawsuit that accused Exxon Mobil of misleading investors about its products and their impact on the climate.
The unanimous opinion, written by Associate Justice Scott Kafker, rejected Exxon Mobil’s attempt to dismiss the lawsuit on grounds it violated a state law that protects the company from lawsuits meant to silence Exxon Mobil’s public advocacy on energy policy.
The opinion said the so-called anti-SLAPP law in Massachusetts does not apply to the attorney general.
“Importantly, she is entrusted with the enforcement of the Commonwealth’s laws, in large part through bringing civil enforcement proceedings,” Kafker said. “Construing the anti-SLAPP statute to apply to the Attorney General would place significant roadblocks to the enforcement of the Commonwealth’s laws.”
Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey accused Exxon Mobil in a 2019 lawsuit of failing to disclose to investors material facts about climate change and misleading consumers about the harm Exxon Mobil’s products cause to the environment.
“Exxon Mobil is misleading Massachusetts consumers through so-called “greenwashing” campaigns that wrongly imply that Exxon Mobil is taking steps to solve climate change and reduce carbon,” according to court records.
Exxon Mobil has denied wrongdoing. It cast the lawsuit as political and an unlawful attempt by the attorney general to quash energy policies with which she disagrees.
“The First Amendment reflects the principle that when the government objects to speech, ‘the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence,’” Exxon Mobil said.
Healey, who is now running for governor, lauded the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruling.
“Once again, Exxon’s attacks on my office and our case have been rejected by the courts. Today’s ruling is a resounding victory in our work to stop Exxon from lying to investors and consumers in our state,” she said.
(WASHINGTON) — May ends with another round of notable primary elections on Tuesday, this time in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia and Texas.
The most-watched races will be in Georgia, with primaries for governor and the Senate.
The results should give more insight into the strength of former President Donald Trump’s endorsement as well as the conservative appetite for the “big lie.”
Here is how the news is developing. All times Eastern. Check back for updates.
May 24, 9:20 pm
Ken Paxton projected winner of Texas attorney general runoff
ABC News projects that in the Texas Republican primary runoff, incumbent Attorney General Ken Paxton will win. As of 9 p.m. Eastern, with 29% of the expected vote in, Paxton leads with 66% of the vote, while George P. Bush follows with 34% of the vote.
This race was both a test of Trump’s endorsement and the power of political dynasties, in this case: the Bushes.
Paxton received former President Donald Trump’s endorsement in July 2021 but went into the runoff engulfed in scandals that include indictment for securities fraud, FBI investigations into malfeasance and marital infidelity, among others. He denies all allegations.
His opponent was Bush, who is George H. W. Bush’s grandson and son of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. He is the only member of his famous family still in public office, currently serving as commissioner of the Texas General Land Office.
May 24, 9:04 pm
Marjorie Taylor Greene projected GOP winner in Georgia’s 14th district
ABC News projects that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is the winner of the Republican primary in Georgia’s 14th Congressional District.
Greene edged out five Republican competitors and overcame a legal challenge to her reelection despite her turbulent tenure in Congress.
As ABC’s Hannah Demissie reported, a group of Georgia voters said that Greene was not eligible to run for reelection due to her alleged involvement in the Jan. 6 attacks on the Capitol, citing the 14th Amendment. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger agreed in early May with the court’s recommendation that Greene is allowed to stay on the ballot.
May 24, 9:03 pm
All polls are now closed
The final polls of the night have closed in Arkansas and Montana.
In Arkansas, voters are picking their party’s nominees for governor and Senate. In Minnesota, there is a special election to choose a replacement for Rep. Jim Hagedorn, who died in February.
May 24, 8:31 pm
Brian Kemp projected winner of gubernatorial primary
ABC News has projected that sitting Gov. Brian Kemp will win the Republican nomination in Georgia, defeating former President Donald Trump’s pick David Perdue.
Trump personally courted Perdue to challenge Kemp after the governor refused to indulge his baseless claims about the 2020 election. Despite the former president’s backing, Perdue consistently lagged in polling and fundraising against Kemp.
Kemp’s presumptive victory sets up a rematch between him and Democrat Stacey Abrams, who ABC News has projected to win the Democratic nomination for Senate. Their bitter 2018 race for the governorship was decided by less than 55,000 votes. Abrams admitted defeat but said she refused to call it a “concession,” citing tactics she said were used to suppress the vote.
May 24, 8:13 pm
Polls close in Alabama, most of Texas
Polls are now closed in Alabama and most of Texas.
In Texas, all eyes are on a runoff election between Democrat Rep. Henry Cuellar and immigration attorney Jessica Cisneros in the state’s 28th Congressional District. Cisneros is backed by the progressive wing of the party, while Cuellar has maintained support from the Democratic establishment despite his anti-abortion stance.
In Alabama, Sen. Richard Shelby’s retirement has resulted in a competitive Republican primary between Rep. Mo Brooks, attorney Katie Britt and former Army helicopter pilot Mike Durant. Brooks initially won former President Donald Trump’s endorsement in the race, but later lost it after suggesting it was time to move on from the 2020 election. Trump has not made another endorsement in the contest.
May 24, 7:19 pm
Stacey Abrams projected to win Democratic gubernatorial primary in Georgia
In the Georgia gubernatorial Democratic primary, ABC News projects Stacey Abrams will win.
Abrams’s victory in the primary means November’s general election could be a rematch between her and Gov. Brian Kemp. Kemp defeated Abrams in 2018 by a very narrow margin that she claimed was influenced by tactics that suppressed the vote.
Following her election loss, Abrams turned to advocacy and founded a voting rights group in Georgia. She’s credited as a main figure in helping Democrats flip the state from blue to red in the 2020 election cycle.
May 24, 7:07 pm
Polls close in Georgia
Polls have closed in Georgia, where voters are picking their party’s nominees in several highly-watched Senate, House and gubernatorial primary elections. Anyone already in line as of the 7 p.m. close will still be able to cast a ballot.
The Peach State has a fraught history of long lines and voting issues on Election Day, but Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger told reporters Tuesday afternoon that “everything so far has been smooth sailing.”
Candidates must receive more than 50% of the vote to win the nomination, or they will face a runoff race on June 21.
May 24, 6:54 pm
Georgia elections are biggest test yet for Trump’s “big lie”
Former President Donald Trump has gone all-in on Georgia, where he’s desperately trying to oust sitting Republican officials who pushed back on his baseless claims about the 2020 presidential election.
His picks include fellow election deniers David Perdue, a former senator running against Gov. Brian Kemp; Rep. Jody Hice, who is challenging Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger; celebrity football star Herschel Walker, who’s seeking a Senate seat; and John Gordon, a businessman trying to unseat Attorney General Chris Carr.
May 24, 6:05 pm
Texas candidates respond to elementary school mass shooting
Democrats Jessica Cisneros and Henry Cuellar, who are competing in a runoff election for a South Texas congressional seat, issued statements after 14 students and one teacher were [killed in a shooting] () at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
“This is a devastating tragedy,” Cisneros wrote on Twitter. “How many more mass shootings do children have to experience before we say enough? Sending my condolences to the children and families in Uvalde who are experiencing this unthinkable tragedy.”
Cuellar said he was “heartbroken” and urged the public to come together to support the community.
May 24, 5:05 pm
Stacey Abrams speaks after David Perdue’s ‘go back’ attack
Stacey Abrams, a Black Democrat running for Georgia governor, declined on Tuesday to directly comment on Republican David Perdue saying she should “go back to where she came from.”
“No, not at all,” Abrams, said at a news conference in Atlanta, when asked by ABC News whether she wanted to respond to what was widely labeled as racist remarks from Perdue on Monday night while giving a campaign speech in which he also charged she was “demeaning her own race.”
“I will say this,” Abrams told ABC News at Tuesday’s press conference. “I have listened to Republicans for the last six months attack me. But they’ve done nothing to attack the challenges facing Georgia. They’ve done nothing to articulate their plans for the future of Georgia. Their response to a comment on their record is to deflect and to pretend that they’ve done good for the people of Georgia.”
Perdue, running to get the GOP nomination for Georgia governor, seized on Abram’s comments last week that Georgia was “worst state in the country to live,” citing residents’ disparities in mental health and maternal mortality, among other issues.
“She ain’t from here. Let her go back to where she came from,” Perdue, a former senator challenging Gov. Brian Kemp for their party’s nomination, said at a campaign event in the Atlanta suburbs on Monday night. “She doesn’t like it here.”
May 24, 5:03 pm
Early voting surges in Georgia as state navigates new election rules
A historic number of people have voted early in Georgia’s primary elections. According to the secretary of state’s office, approximately 857,401 people voted in-person or through an absentee ballot as of Friday — roughly three times as many as at the same point in the 2018 midterm election cycle.
Republicans are touting increased voter turnout as proof a controversial election law signed last year wasn’t as restrictive as its opponents described, while Democrats say the numbers are indicative of public pushback to the legislation.
“I think it tells us that Georgia voters got the message and the message was, ‘We gotta go vote, and we’ve got to go vote early, and we’ve got to go vote in person,’” Bee Nguyen, the leading Democratic candidate for secretary of state, told ABC News’ MaryAlice Parks.
May 24, 4:25 pm
Here’s what time polls close in each state
Here’s what time polls close in each state on Tuesday. All times Eastern.
Georgia: 7 p.m.
Alabama: 8 p.m.
Texas: 8 p.m. in most of the state, 9 p.m. in the western tip
Arkansas: 8:30 p.m.
Minnesota: 9 p.m
May 24, 5:07 pm
What races Republicans, Democrats will be watching closely in Tuesday’s primaries
Tuesday’s primary elections, stretching across four Southern states, will continue to test Republican voters’ appetite for former President Donald Trump and his push of the “big lie.”
Nowhere is that more apparent than in Georgia as Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger — two Republicans who balked at Trump’s requests to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential race — face challenges from enthusiastic proponents of Trump’s baseless election claims. Kemp is hoping to fight off former Sen. David Perdue, while Raffensperger is looking to rebuff Rep. Jody Hice.
Another high-profile contest in the Peach State will be the Senate primary, where football star Herschel Walker is running for the Republican nomination to likely challenge Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock. Trump-endorsed Walker has been leading the pack despite several controversies, including prior accusations of domestic violence. (Walker has denied some of the allegations and said he doesn’t remember others.)
For Democrats, the most-watched race of the night will be a runoff in Texas’ 28th Congressional District as 29-year-old immigration attorney Jessica Cisneros tries for a third time to unseat nine-term incumbent Rep. Henry Cuellar. The heated primary is the first clear test of how abortion rights may motivate voters this election cycle, given Cuellar’s position as the sole anti-abortion Democrat in the House.
And in Georgia, two Democratic incumbents — Rep. Lucy McBath and Rep. Carolyn Bordeaux — are running against each other because of redistricting.
(NEWARK, N.J.) — A United Airlines employee was fired and a former NFL player was arrested following a physical altercation at Newark Liberty International Airport last week.
Brendan Langley, former player for the Denver Broncos, was charged with simple assault and released on his own recognizance following the incident, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
The fight broke out after the United employee asked Langley to return a wheelchair he was using to carry his luggage, sources told ABC News. The employee was attempting to retrieve the wheelchair for another passenger who was disabled, the source said.
It is unclear who initiated the fight. Portions of the incident were caught on camera and posted to social media.
United Airlines said it fired the employee after investigating the incident and reviewing video from a bystander.
The Calgary Stampeders football club, for whom Langley currently plays, said it was aware of the incident and “is currently looking into the matter in order to learn the full details and will have no further comment until the investigation is complete.”
The incident comes ahead of the Memorial Day Travel period, which is expected to be the busiest since the start of the pandemic.
ABC News’ Anthony McMahon contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Every single mass shooting in America is not just a tragedy, Connecticut Democrat Chris Murphy said, it is a political — a moral — failing by the country’s leaders who must choose anew after each killing to do nothing about the violence.
That was Murphy’s impassioned argument on the Senate floor to his colleagues late Tuesday afternoon, hours after authorities said an 18-year-old gunman fatally shot at least 18 students and a teacher at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
“What are we doing?” Murphy asked the chamber, repeating the question several times throughout his speech, for dramatic effect. “There have been more mass shootings than days in the year,” he said. “Our kids are living in fear every single time they set foot in the classroom because they think they’re going to be next. What are we doing?”
Little more than week had passed since a suspected white supremacist was accused of killing 10 shoppers at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, Murphy said. “Just days after a shooter walked into a grocery store to gun down African-American patrons, we have another Sandy Hook on our hands.”
And so again he asked: “What are we doing?”
“Why do you spend all this time running for the United States Senate? Why do you go through all the hassle of getting this job, of putting yourself in a position of authority? If your answer is that as this slaughter increases as our kids run for their lives, we do nothing — what are we doing? Why are you here if not to solve a problem as existential as this?”
Murphy, the lead Democratic negotiator on so many stalled legislative solutions to gun violence, has become perhaps Congress most outspoken voice on the continued toll of shootings across the country; he was motivated to take up this cause by the killings of Sandy Hook elementary school children in his home state in 2012.
He has urged — and continued to urge — action on the issue even as it has become increasingly polarizing in Congress, where conservatives have little appetite to enact new bills.
In his speech on Tuesday, Murphy invoked the trauma for the surviving Sandy Hook children: “They had to adopt a practice in which there would be a safe word that the kids would say if they started to get thoughts in their brain about what they saw that day, [if] they started to get nightmares during the day, reliving stepping over their classmates’ bodies as they tried to flee the school.”
“Sandy Hook will never ever be the same,” Murphy said. “This community in Texas will never ever be the same.”
And so again he asked: “Why? Why are we here — if not to try to make sure that fewer schools and fear communities go through what Sandy Hook has gone through, what Uvalde is going through?”
There were legislative solutions, Murphy told his fellow senators. There had to be, he said.
“Our heart is breaking for these families,” he said. “Every ounce of love and thoughts and prayers we can send we are sending I’m here on this floor to beg to literally get down on my hands and knees and beg my colleagues find a path forward here. Work with us to find a way to pass laws that make this less likely.”
“I understand my Republican colleagues will not agree to everything that I may support,” he continued, “but there is a common denominator that we can find. There is a place where we can achieve agreement.”
The latest episode of mass gun violence has prompted a familiar timeline of events among politicians: With the president set to address the nation, various lawmakers have spoken out to share their grief and horror and suggest that there be come future bipartisan compromise to reduce gun violence.
Past efforts to enact such legislation, on various scales of reform, have all died in Congress.
In addition to Sen. Murphy, Texas’ congressional delegation began speaking out on Tuesday in the hours after the killings.
John Cornyn, a leading Republican in the Senate and a Houston native, has been at the center of discussions about gun violence that have failed — including background checks reform. He told reporters on Tuesday he was headed back to Texas after his own floor speech and was being briefed by officials, including the Uvalde mayor.
“We’re still trying to get a clearer picture of what’s going on what happened and what the motivation was But it’s clearly horrible,” Cornyn said.
Democrats Jessica Cisneros and Henry Cuellar, who are competing in a runoff election on Tuesday for a South Texas congressional seat, issued statements of their own.
“This is a devastating tragedy,” Cisneros wrote on Twitter. “How many more mass shootings do children have to experience before we say enough? Sending my condolences to the children and families in Uvalde who are experiencing this unthinkable tragedy.”
Cuellar said he was “heartbroken” and urged the public to come together to support the community.
Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz also spoke on the Senate floor, standing in sharp contrast to Murphy’s emotional appeal.
“Inevitably when there’s a murderer of this kind, you see politicians try to politicize it, you see Democrats and a lot of folks in the media whose immediate solution is to try to restrict the constitutional rights of law abiding citizens,” he said.
ABC News’ Alexandra Hutzler contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — With the U.S. still reeling from the mass shooting at a Buffalo grocery store, not even two weeks ago, President Joe Biden addressed Americans in the terrible wake of Tuesday’s shooting at a Texas elementary school that left at least 18 young children dead.
A clearly emotional Biden spoke to the nation from the White House Roosevelt Room about an hour after arriving back from a five-day trip to Asia and about two hours after ordering, from Air Force One, that the flag flying above the White House be lowered to half-staff.
“I’d hoped, when I became president, I would not have to do this again. Another massacre. Uvalde, Texas. An elementary school. Beautiful, second, third, fourth graders,” he said.
“As a nation we have to ask when in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby,” he said raising his voice.
“I am sick and tired of it — we have to act,’ he said.
Two adults, including a teacher at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, were also killed by the 18-year-old suspect — said to be a student at Uvalde High School — who also died, according to Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott, whom Biden spoke with on his way back to Washington.
Less than two weeks ago, just before Biden traveled overseas he was in Buffalo, condemning a suspected white supremacist accused of killing 10 Black people going about their daily lives at a local supermarket.
There, he called on Congress to “keep weapons of war off our streets.”
A short time before Biden was scheduled to speak, Vice President Kamala Harris, fighting back tears, commented on the shooting as she began her pre-scheduled remarks at a Washington gala.
“Tonight is a rough night, we planned for a great celebration, but I’m sure most of you have heard the tragic news about what happened in Texas,” she said.
“Every time a tragedy like this happens, our hearts break. And our broken hearts are nothing compared to the broken hearts of those families — and yet it keeps happening. So, I think we all know and have said many times with each other: Enough is enough. Enough is enough,” she said.
“As a nation, we have to have the courage to take action and understand the nexus between what makes for reasonable and sensible public policy to ensure something like this never happens again,” she said.
In February, on the fourth anniversary of the shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where a single gunman killed 17 students and staff, Biden, again, pushed lawmakers to pass legislation requiring universal background checks and banning assault weapons, among other measures to reduce gun violence.
And last December, on the ninth anniversary of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, where a single gunman killed 20 first-graders and six teachers, Biden spoke to victims’ families in a speech from the White House, demanding that lawmakers “owe them action.”
“Because of your leadership, we forged a broad coalition and enacted more than 20 executive orders,” Biden said. “We came close to legislation, but we came up short. It was so darn frustrating.”
While serving as then-President Barack Obama’s vice president, Biden was tasked in the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting to lead the administration’s effort to enact tougher gun control laws — but in the nearly decade since the nation mourned for Newtown, no action on gun control has passed at a federal level.
Biden, like some of his predecessors, has repeatedly pushed for reforms to address gun violence but has faced a reluctance from Congress to engage on the issue.
Bills aimed at expanding and strengthening background checks have passed through the House’s Democratic majority but have failed to garner enough Republican support to pass the Senate filibuster’s 60-vote threshold.
As president, Biden has used some executive powers instead, like when he announced new regulations on so-called “ghost guns” last month.
But asked about what more he might do to address gun violence when leaving Buffalo last week, Biden conceded there was “not much” he could do through executive action.
“I’ve got to convince the Congress that we should go back to what I passed years ago,” Biden said, referring to the 1994 passage of an assault weapons ban that expired in 2004.
Since Sandy Hook in 2012, the U.S. has endured more than 3,500 mass shootings, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
(UVALDE, Texas) — At least 18 children and two adults are dead after a shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.
The 18-year-old suspect, a student at Uvalde High School, is also dead, Gov. Greg Abbott said.
Abbott said the suspect “shot and killed horrifically and incomprehensibly” more than a dozen students and a teacher.
The suspect also allegedly shot and killed his grandmother before entering the school and again opening fire.
The shooter was identified by law enforcement sources and the governor as Salvador Ramos. Authorities have recovered an AR-15-style rifle and numerous magazines, multiple law enforcement sources told ABC News.
“When parents drop their kids off at school, they have every expectation to know that they’re going to be able to pick their child up when that school day ends. And there are families who are in mourning right now,” Abbott said. “The state of Texas is in mourning with them for the reality that these parents are not going to be able to pick up their children.”
Two responding police officers were among those injured, Abbott said. They are expected to survive, he said.
Uvalde Memorial Hospital had said 15 students were being treated in the hospital’s emergency department in the wake of the incident. Two patients were transferred to San Antonio for treatment, while a third was pending transfer, the hospital said. A 45-year-old was also hospitalized after getting grazed by a bullet, the hospital said.
University Health in San Antonio said it had two patients from the shooting incident — a 66-year-old woman and a 10-year-old girl — both in critical condition.
Two adult victims of the shooting, both in critical condition, are also being treated at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, according to an Army official.
A number of the shooting victims are children of Customs and Border Patrol agents, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin did not confirm casualties, but told ABC News in a text message that “this is a very bad situation.” He said the office is trying to contact parents before releasing any information.
Earlier, the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District had said a shooter was located at Robb Elementary School and asked people to stay away from the area.
“There is an active shooter at Robb Elementary,” the school district said on Twitter. “Law enforcement is on site. Your cooperation is needed at this time by not visiting the campus. As soon as more information is gathered it will be shared.”
A school official initially told ABC News that the shooting took place off campus, and that Robb Elementary School was under lockdown.
The shooting occurred shortly after 11:30 a.m. local time, police said.
The school, which has students in the second, third and fourth grades, informed parents shortly after 2 p.m. that students had been transported to the Sgt. Willie Deleon Civic Center, the reunification site, and could be picked up.
Parent Ryan Ramirez told San Antonio ABC affiliate KSAT he had gone to the civic center and the elementary school trying to find his fourth grade daughter in the wake of the shooting.
“[I’m] just confused and worried. I’m trying to find out where my baby’s at,” he told the station.
The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office and San Antonio Police Department are sending aid, and the FBI is responding.
The Houston Field Division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also said it is assisting in the investigation.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has been briefed on the situation and the agency “is actively coordinating with federal, state, and local partners,” a spokesperson said. Customs and Border Protection officials in the area also responded to the scene.
The National Counterterrorism Operations Center believes there is “no known terrorism nexus” at this time, according to a law enforcement bulletin obtained by ABC News.
ABC News’ Pierre Thomas, Luke Barr, Aaron Katersky, Nicholas Kerr and Mireya Villarreal contributed to this report.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
(UVALDE, Texas) — A fourth-grade teacher was among those killed in a mass shooting at a Texas elementary school on Tuesday, ABC News has learned.
At least 14 children were also killed after a gunman opened fire at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, west of San Antonio, Gov. Greg Abbott said.
The alleged gunman — identified by officials as 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, a student at Uvalde High School — is dead, authorities said.
“When parents drop their kids off at school, they have every expectation to know that they’re going to be able to pick their child up when that school day ends. And there are families who are in mourning right now,” Abbott told reporters.
Here’s what we know about the victims so far.
Eva Mireles
Eva Mireles, a fourth-grade teacher at the elementary school, was killed in the shooting, her aunt, Lydia Martinez Delgado, confirmed to ABC News. She had been a teacher in the school district for approximately 17 years, Delgado said.
“I’m furious that these shooting continue. These children are innocent. Rifles should not be easily available to all,” Delgado said. “This is my hometown, a small community of less then 20,000. I never imagined this would happen to especially to loved ones.”
“All we can do is pray hard for our country, state, schools and especially the families of all,” she said.
(OXFORD, Mich.) — Victims and families of victims of the November Oxford school shooting in Michigan filed a lawsuit against the Oxford school district and school administrators, accusing them of violating legally mandated school safety policies and of violating students’ constitutional rights.
The lawsuit accused administrators of failing to notify law enforcement of the actions of the accused shooter leading up to the shooting.
Administrators named in the lawsuit include Superintendent Timothy Throne, principal Steven Wolf, dean of students Nicholas Ejak, student counselor Shawn Hopkins, Superintendent Kenneth Weaver and four teachers, including the teacher who caught the alleged shooter looking at ammunition for his gun online while in class.
The lawsuit was jointly filed by the parents of Justin Shilling and Tate Myre, who were killed in the shooting, and representatives for four minors who were injured in the shooting.
The lawsuit alleges that accused school shooter Ethan Crumbley had exhibited “concerning behavior that indicated psychiatric distress, suicidal or homicidal tendencies and the possibility of child abuse and neglect.”
On Nov. 11, weeks before the shooting, Crumbley brought a severed bird’s head to the Oxford high school and placed it in the boy’s bathroom. While other students found and reported it, school administrators including the principal and district administrators concealed this information from staff and parents, the lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit alleges that the school administration sent an email to parents on Nov. 12 telling them they have reviewed concerns they received and they have investigated all information provided to them and deemed there had been “no threat to our building nor our students.”
Several parents raised concerns about the threats to students made on social media and about multiple severed animal heads at the school to the principal on or around Nov. 16, the lawsuit alleges. But, the school district dismissed concerns raised by students and parents as “not credible,” according to the lawsuit.
Wolf, the principal, sent parents an email confirming that there was no threat at the school and assumptions made on social media “were merely exaggerated rumors,” the lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit claims other students saw Crumbley with shell casings and live ammunition rounds one day before the shooting.
The suit also accuses one of the teachers, Pam Parker Fine, of violating the law by failing to contact child protective services, as required, in response to her being presented with evidence that Crumbley was researching ammunition in class and the refusal of Crumbley’s parents to respond to her call. The lawsuit alleges she was required to notify police, specifically the high school’s liaison officer, of the possibility that Crumbley was a victim of child abuse and neglect and posed a risk to himself and others.
Jacqueline Kubina, a second teacher named in the suit who found Crumbley looking up ammunition in class, is also accused of violating the law by failing to report it to law enforcement.
The suit also alleges that Ejak, the dean of students, and Hopkins, a student counselor, failed to search Crumbley’s backpack or have local law enforcement search it the day of the shooting despite having “reasonable cause to do so.” This was after teachers had found his drawings, including a drawing of people with gunshot wounds and text next to it saying, “The thoughts won’t stop. Help me.”
The school had called Crumbley’s parents to the school to address the issue the morning of the shooting, but the Crumbley parents refused to take their child home. Hopkins had warned them the morning of the shooting that if they did not take Crumbley to counseling within 48 hours he would be “following up,” the lawsuit alleged.
The lawsuit alleged Crumbley’s parents refusing to address the issue was evidence of child abuse and neglect, which the dean of students and student counselor were legally required to report, but they did not.
Ejak and Hopkins “deliberately” conducted the meeting with Crumbley and his parents without the safety liaison officer or other local law enforcement, “preventing a proper and through investigation and lawful search of Crumbley’s backpack, which would have prevented this tragedy,” the lawsuit alleged.
The defendants’ actions were “reckless” and put the lives of the victims “at substantial risk of serious and immediate harm,” the lawsuit alleged. The lawsuit claimed that due to the school and district administrators’ knowledge before the shooting began, “it was foreseeable that [Crumbley] would carry out such acts of violence.”
The lawsuit also alleged that the district violated the victims’ constitutional right to be free from danger.
“While this new lawsuit won’t remedy the pain and suffering these families have gone through, it will certainly hold the school district and its officials accountable for their role in not properly supervising and training teachers and counselors, who have an obligation to ensure students remain safe,” said Ven Johnson, an attorney for the plaintiffs, in a statement.
Lawyers are requesting damages in addition to interest, costs and attorneys’ fees, as well as punitive and/or exemplary damages.
“With the alarming number of red flags and desperate cries for help that Ethan’s parents, teachers, counselors and administrators all somehow missed, this mass shooting absolutely could and should have been prevented,” Johnson said.
(NEW YORK) — New Coke bottles have started appearing in the U.K. as the popular soda brand continues on its path toward more sustainable packaging.
“As part of Coca-Cola’s journey towards a World Without Waste, we are transitioning to a new packaging system in Great Britain and other European markets,” a representative for the brand told “Good Morning America.” “The new packaging ensures the cap remains attached to the bottle — making it easier than ever for consumers to recycle the whole package, ensuring that no cap gets left behind.”
The attached caps debuted on select 1.5-liter bottles in the U.K., with more pack sizes to be introduced throughout the year.
The fresh design comes on the heels of a new regulation from the European Union intended to reduce waste and pollution. The regulation, which goes into effect in July 2024, states that caps on some non-returnable bottles holding up to three liters must have a cap that is firmly attached to the container.
According to The Coca-Cola Co., this new design is the result of “extensive research with our suppliers and consumer testing.”
The new cap allows someone drinking a Coke to retain the lid with the bottle, which ultimately prevents the cap from being littered, and offers “a positive drinking experience.”
All of the new caps remain 100% recyclable, along with the bottles, which have been 100% recyclable for several years.
In 2018, The Coca-Cola Co. announced its World Without Waste program to “reduce our global use of virgin plastic by 20% (the cumulative equivalent of 3 million metric tons) by 2025.” The company also pledged to “use at least 50% recycled material in our packaging by 2030.”
There are currently no immediate plans to bring the new attached-cap innovation to the U.S., a representative for the brand confirmed to “GMA.”
“By the end of 2024, we aim to have transitioned our entire production to attached caps as we progress to more sustainable packaging,” the company stated.
(NEW YORK) — Cherelle Griner, the wife of WNBA superstar Brittney Griner, who has been detained in a Russian prison for nearly 100 days, spoke for the first time on Tuesday in an exclusive interview with “Good Morning America.”
Griner told “GMA” co-anchor Robin Roberts that the support her wife has gotten from the league has brought the WNBA star “comfort” amid her detention in Russia.
The WNBA, which kicked off its 2022 season on May 6, is honoring Griner with a floor decal bearing her initials and jersey number (42) on the sideline of all 12 WNBA teams.
“Things like that matter, like, it has her hopeful,” Cherelle Griner told Roberts. “It lets her know she’s not forgotten.”
“Those small moments, I know give her some type of hope,” she added.
Watch the interview Wednesday morning at 7 a.m. ET exclusively on “Good Morning America.”
Brittney Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medalist who plays for the Phoenix Mercury, was visiting Russia to play basketball off-season when she was arrested in February at Sheremetyevo International Airport near Moscow for allegedly having vape cartridges in her luggage that contained hashish oil — an illegal substance in Russia.
She was charged with “large-scale transportation of drugs” and could face up to 10 years in prison, according to the New York Times.
The U.S. government classified Griner’s case on May 3 as “wrongfully detained” in Russia, which means that the U.S. would work to negotiate her release, as opposed to letting her case play out in the Russian legal system.
State Department spokesperson Ned Price said on Friday that a U.S. consular officer was able to meet with Griner on Thursday May 19, for the second time in a week.
Price said that the official “found her continuing to do as well as could be expected under these exceedingly challenging circumstances.”
“But again, our message is a clear and simple one — we continue to insist that Russia allow consistent and timely consular access to all U.S. citizen detainees,” he added. “One-off visits are not sufficient, and we will continue to call on Moscow to uphold its commitments under the Vienna Convention for consistent and timely access as well.”
Price said that he spoke with Cherelle Griner earlier this month by phone, assuring her that the administration was doing everything it could to ensure the WNBA player’s release.
Calls to free Brittney Griner escalated following the release of Marine veteran Trevor Reed last month, who was freed from Russian prison as part of a prisoner exchange. Former Marine Paul Whelan has also been detained in Russia since 2019.
ABC News’ Shannon Crawford contributed to this report.
