DEL RIO, Texas (Legal Newsline) - Survivors of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, have dropped their emotional distress lawsuit against a host of defendants, including the school district and principal.
Five students and their guardians dropped their claims on Feb. 2 in Texas federal court without prejudice, meaning they could refile if they choose to. They faced one motion to dismiss, filed recently by Robb Elementary principal Mandy Gutierrez.
The defendants also included the company that sold shooter Salvador Ramos weapons and ammunition - Oasis Outback - that he used to carry out his attack that killed 19 students and two teachers in May.
The litigation said also Daniel Defense is aware its assault weapons end up in the hands of mass shooters but ignores the number of killings they cause.
The lawsuit claimed the school district and Gutierrez failed to utilize active-shooter alert systems. Gutierrez was put on paid leave after the shooting and reinstated a week later.
Gutierrez says she was let down by technology as she tried to initiate the safety procedures in place at the school.
"Gutierrez first learned of the shooter when she heard Coach (Yvette) Silva's report on her school radio," her motion to dismiss said. "Accordingly, she began initiating lockdown procedures, which first consisted of her making a school-wide alert via a system called 'the Raptor application.'
"However, because of a bad WiFi signal, the alert did not initiate."
After it failed, Gutierrez said she called the police and had the head custodian ensure all doors were locked.
"Gutierrez never broadcast the lockdown on the school intercom system. During this time, the armed individual proceeded to enter the school through an unlocked exterior door and entered Room 111, also unlocked. The shooter claimed many lives and wounded many others" the motion said.
Part of her motion to dismiss said the plaintiffs were using intentional infliction of emotional distress as a "gap-filler" tort to file suit.