Parents of Teens Killed In High School Shooting Sue District For $50M

CHATSWORTH, CA — The parents of two teenagers who were fatally shot by a fellow student at Saugus High School in 2019 are collectively entitled to $50 million, according to their attorneys' new court papers, but lawyers for the William S. Hart Union High School District maintain the shooting was an unforeseeable "terrorist attack."

The plaintiffs in the consolidated wrongful death/negligence lawsuit are Bryan and Cindy Muehlberger, the father and mother of the late 15-year-old Gracie Anne Muehlberger, and Frank and Nancy Blackwell, the father and mother of the late 14-year-old Dominic Blackwell.

The teens were fatally wounded when 16-year-old Nathaniel Berhow opened fire at the Santa Clarita school on Nov. 14, 2019. School security video showed him walk into the quad, pull a .45-caliber handgun from his backpack, shoot five people around him, then fatally turn the gun on himself. Three other students were wounded.

In a trial brief filed Tuesday with Chatsworth Superior Court Judge Stephen P. Pfahler in advance of the scheduled Oct. 30 trial, the plaintiffs' attorneys state that Berhow carried a gun through an unmonitored school entrance. They further allege that the school district, by its own admission, had no program in place to identify troubled students, that video evidence proves the school failed to follow their policy requiring personnel to be stationed at school entrances, that the armed sheriff's deputy assigned as the school resource officer was absent because the district splits that deputy between multiple schools and that the deputy had no active-shooter training.

The district further admits threats of violence or suicide requiring student resource officer intervention are made frequently and the vice- principal in charge of security "would say that it's not if, but when" an active shooter comes on campus, according to the plaintiffs' attorneys' court papers.

Although the start of the day is one of the most dangerous times for student violence, one of the school's four campus supervisors on duty when Berhow came onto campus at 6:55 a.m. merely drove around campus on a golf cart, providing scant supervision, according to the plaintiffs' lawyers court papers.

Another supervisor spent about half of the 40 minutes that Berhow was on campus refilling a vending machine instead of watching the gate through which Berhow entered, the plaintiffs' lawyers further state in their court papers.

"This tragedy was foreseeable and preventable," according to the plaintiffs' attorneys' court papers. "The Blackwells and Muehlbergers will ask the jury to award them the value of the loss of the care, comfort, society, and affection of their two children as a result of the shooting, estimated to be at least $25 million for Gracie and $25 million for Dominic."

The plaintiffs' attorneys maintain that Berhow had a history of cutting himself and had written things indicating a belief he was sadistic and psychotic. They also say Berhow had a troubled home life and became more withdrawn after his father died in 2017.

Color photos of the two teens smiling are attached to the pleadings along with images of the area where the shootings occurred.

But in their court papers, attorneys for the district state that Berhow "had no known motive and no social connection" to the five students he shot and that he had no known history of violence or red flags.

"Over a course of 10 seconds, and without warning, Nathan pulled a handgun from his backpack and shot at fellow students before shooting himself," the district lawyers maintain in their court papers. "As a matter of law, the district had no legal duty to prevent this unfortunate and unforeseeable terrorist attack, especially given no warning signs from Nathan."

None of Berhow's teachers had any reason to believe he posed a danger to himself or others, according to the district's attorneys' court papers. In addition, an assistant principal assigned to handle chronic absenteeism and discipline problems with students in Berhow's first three years of classes never had any reason to interact with the teen, the district's lawyers further state in their court papers.

In reality, the quad area was under supervision by campus supervisors before and at the time of the shootings, according to the district's court papers, which further state that Berhow was a junior in the 2019-2020 school year and was enrolled in physics, American literature, history, aerospace, engineering, psychology and math, and also was on the school's cross country team.

Several Saugus High teachers who taught Berhow previously submitted sworn declarations in support of the district, including psychology teacher Adam Bratt.

"The only issue I had with Nathan was he failed to hand in some homework assignments around the end of October (2019)," Bratt says. "I advised him that if he handed them in by a certain time, I would give him full credit. Thereafter, he submitted all the missing homework."

Jerome Castaneda, then the Saugus High campus supervisor, said security reacted quickly to the sounds of gunfire.

"When I heard the first shot, students began to scatter," Castaneda says. "I ran to the adjacent cafeteria building where a door was propped open. I entered and closed the door to lock down that building."

As Castaneda ran to the cafeteria door, he heard additional shots for another 15 to 20 seconds, he says.

"I heard no further shots after that point," Castaneda says. "After three to five minutes inside the cafeteria, I left it and observed there were people in the quad area assisting injured students on the ground. I went to assist them."

Marcus Garrett, then the school's assistant principal, says in his sworn statement that he did not hear the gunfire, but that after being told of it he locked up the school's office, then later learned of Berhow's identification from papers in the student's backpack. He said he subsequently reviewed a security video of the incident and that the images showed Berhow reached into his backpack and began firing, then eventually fell to the ground.

"The students around him were calm until the shooting started and then they scattered," according to Garrett.

By BILL HETHERMAN, City News Service