Parents of Rigby Middle School shooting victim continue lawsuit claiming school, law enforcement were warned and did not act
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RIGBY — Almost five years after a shooting at Rigby Middle School, victims are still engrossed in court proceedings as they blame the school district, the sheriff’s office, and the shooter’s parents for not seeing what they say were obvious signs that a school shooting was about to occur.
In March 2022, 10 months after a 12-year-old girl shot two students and a custodian at Rigby Middle School on May 6, 2021, the parents of one of the victims filed a lawsuit against the school’s principal, Richard Howard; the school resource officer, Joe Seavy; the shooter; the two parents of the shooter; the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office and Jefferson County School District 251.
EastIdahoNews.com is not identifying the name or initials of the shooter or her family because of her age at the time of the shooting.
The student victim’s parents are suing all seven defendants for negligent infliction of emotional distress and negligence. Additionally, they are suing Howard, JCSD #251, Seavy, and the JCSO for failure to supervise. They are suing the shooter’s parents for negligent supervision and negligent entrustment.
They have asked the court to award them at least $10,000 in economic and non-economic damages, including pain and suffering and loss of enjoyment of life.
The lawsuit claims that the victim’s father, one of the plaintiffs, lost his employment “due to the care (the father) needed to provide to (the victim)” because of the trauma from the shooting.
After hearing arguments from the defendants for summary judgment in the case, which would resolve the lawsuit without a trial if a judge found that one party lacked sufficient evidence, District Judge Brandon Tayler denied the motion on Jan. 30, setting the case for a jury trial.
The trial has now been rescheduled for the sixth time to April 12, 2027.
The claims
According to the lawsuit, a Rigby Middle School student’s mother met with the school’s principal, Howard, and school resource officer, Seavy, on April 29, 2021, one week before the shooting, to discuss a “disturbing TikTok video posted by a student at RMS.”
The TikTok video reportedly showed several RMS students walking on a sidewalk with the caption “I actually want to shoot everyone in this dumb school.”
It is not clear in court documents who posted the video, but the lawsuit says there was a comment on the video from the girl who would later become the shooter, that stated, “Just kill them or write in a notebook how to kill them. Sometimes I do that.”
The mother reportedly asked the principal to investigate the video and take appropriate safety measures. According to the lawsuit, Howard agreed, saying a full investigation would be done and allegedly stating, “We do not need Rigby on the national news.”
The next morning, April 30, the mother contacted Howard again, asking for assurance that “her child and other children would be safe at RMS.” Howard reportedly told the mother that the situation with the TikTok and the comment had been resolved and “RMS was safe.” The lawsuit claims this was inaccurate and that the investigation was, in fact, “incomplete or insufficient.”
The following Monday, May 3, the woman’s child told her that the student who posted the TikTok video was present at school that day. That same day, a different concerned mother of another student also contacted Howard, asking for “a continuing investigation, appropriate consequences for the students who had made death threats, and a safe environment for students at RMS.”
Ryan Erickson, the vice principal at the time, and now principal at RMS, told the concerned mother that a “thorough investigation had been completed, appropriate consequences had been given, and that administration was monitoring the situation daily to ensure all children at RMS would be safe,” according to the lawsuit.
However, the lawsuit claims the student who had posted the TikTok video was allowed to remain on campus, and the student who commented on the video (the eventual shooter) was not disciplined at all. According to witness reports in court documents, the student who posted the TikTok was suspended for one day.
“RMS and the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office failed to adequately investigate the threats and provide a safe environment for RMS students,” claims the lawsuit.
The filing then states that three days later, on May 6, the student who made the death threat in the comments “brought two of her parents’ guns to school and opened fire.”
The lawsuit also claims that Officer Seavy was not present at RMS on the day of the shooting, and “failed to have another officer substitute for his absence.”
According to court filings, the shooter was eventually charged with three counts of attempted first-degree murder. She entered an agreement with prosecutors to plead guilty to all three charges and was committed to the Idaho Department of Juvenile Corrections; she has since been released.
RELATED | Here’s where the Rigby Middle School shooter is today
Negligence
The lawsuit claims that Howard and District 251 had a “duty to act reasonably to maintain a safe environment for its students.”
The filings quote Idaho Code 33-512(11), which says that administrators have the duty “to provide for the removal from each schoolhouse or school grounds of any individual or individuals … whose presence is detrimental to the morals, health, safety, academic learning or discipline of the pupils.”
Because Howard had been shown the death threats, and the school district did not punish or keep the shooter from coming back to school, the victim’s parents say they failed to protect the students.
“As a direct and proximate result of (Howard and JCSD #251’s) conduct, (the victim) has suffered personal, physical and emotional injuries and continues to be damaged psychologically and physically, and to experience mental anguish and emotional distress,” says the lawsuit.
The lawsuit also blames Officer Seavy and the sheriff’s office for the shooting and its consequences, saying they “should have known that great bodily harm could have arisen as a result of these (death) threats.”
As for the shooter’s parents, the plaintiffs claim they failed to “take reasonable measures to secure their firearms so the firearms could not be accessed and used by their child.”
Police records obtained by EastIdahoNews.com say deputies searched the shooter’s home and found four boxes of 9mm Sellier and Bellot ammunition, one box of 9mm Luger ammunition, and one loose 9mm Hollow Point round “directly inside of the doorway” of a gun room, “lying on a table.” One of which was the same ammunition found at the school.
Deputies also found that the keys to the gun safe room were hanging on a wall near the door. One of the parents stated that the room’s lock is a fingerprint lock, but the key is kept nearby “for emergencies.” The same parent was asked by deputies why the gun safe was left ajar, and they responded that it was how they kept it.
The plaintiff’s also accuse the shooter of negligence, saying she “had a duty to act reasonably and to act in a manner that would not cause harm to those around her.”
Failure to supervise
The plaintiffs accuse Howard and the District 251 of failure to supervise, claiming they have a duty to “appropriately supervise a student under its supervision, custody or care when that student’s dangerous propensities are known.”
“Howard and (JCSD #251) failed to investigate, take remedial action, or otherwise prevent (the shooter) from shooting other students,” the lawsuit claims. “(Their conduct) rises to the level of reckless, willful, and wanton.”
Negligent infliction of emotional distress
The lawsuit accuses all defendants of negligent infliction of emotional distress, saying that each of them had a duty to “exercise due care to protect (the victim) from harm, and further to protect the health and morals of their students, including (the victim).”
The parents of the victim say the defendants caused “irreparable and severe emotional and psychological injury with physical manifestations” to the victim, as well as causing the parents “emotional and psychological injuries, and past and future financial obligations of providing care and treatment for their child.”
Negligent supervision and entrustment
The victim’s parents are suing the shooter’s parents for negligent supervision and negligent entrustment, claiming that they were aware of their daughter’s “propensity for violent thoughts and behavior” as well as the fact that she had access to their firearms.
“Despite this knowledge, (the shooter’s parents) failed to take reasonable steps to guard against the foreseeable consequences of (the shooter’s) propensity for violence,” claims the lawsuit.
According to the lawsuit, the shooter’s parents were aware that their daughter had issues with violence, and still gave her access to the firearms.
In a police report written by a Bonneville County Sheriff’s Deputy on the day of the shooting, deputies were assisting with the investigation and searching the shooter’s bedroom after the incident. Deputies reportedly found disturbing writings, drawings and a printed map of Rigby Middle School.
Shortly after the shooting, the shooter reportedly told a Jefferson County Sheriff’s deputy that she had attempted to make a bomb at her home with kerosene, but was unsuccessful, because her parent caught her and told her to “be careful because that stuff could burn down the house.”
Inside her bedroom, deputies reportedly found “a clear plastic tote” containing “four 1-liter Arrowhead water bottles along with a roll of string that appeared as if it was the makings of an explosive device.” Reports say there were “no other bomb making materials inside the plastic tote.”
During the investigation, police reports say the shooter’s phone was searched. Deputies say they found that between March 20 and May 5, the day before the shooting, she was searching for information on mass shootings, guns and specific school shooters.
According to court documents, there were 167 concerning searches such as “should teen school shotters [sic] spend the rest of their lives in prison,” “AK-47”, “Bomb”, “best guns to use on a school shooting,” “what is homicide”, and many more similar questions.
An affidavit from a Jefferson County Sheriff’s deputy says detectives also found a hit list of students inside the shooter’s backpack that contained their lunch schedules and classes they attended, along with detailed notes about how she planned the shooting, and her anger toward her classmates and family inside a notebook.
EastIdahoNews.com reached out to the defendants’ attorney, Brian Julian, but did not receive a response.
We also contacted the plaintiff’s attorney, Reed Larsen, who declined to provide a statement about the lawsuit.