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School Violence / Hazing

The staggering number of serious injuries and deaths of students rarely receives proper attention from the public. For example, between 1995 and 2000, college students were victims of more than half a million crimes of violence annually, including rape/sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault, and simple assault. The U.S. Department of Education tracks reported incidents of violent crime, including forcible sex offenses. In one year, the Department of Education documented nearly 4,000 sexual assaults involving college students. Hazing by fraternities also results in widespread injury and death of students, which our firm seeks to address through litigation for victims across the country. The tragedies at Virginia Tech and Columbine High School, where our firm served as lead counsel for numerous victims’ families and survivors, are high-profile examples of the painful reality of school violence and our firm’s work in this area of the law.

At Virginia Tech, we demonstrated that lives could have been saved and catastrophic injuries avoided had the University not failed numerous duties to protect students, staff, and the campus community: from a disturbed, violent student whom professors and professional staff knew from prior incidents was an imminent threat to others; and, following the violent murder of two students in a dormitory in the early hours of April 16, 2007, when critical time – hours - passed without any warning to the campus community despite the knowledge of the police and university administrators that a double-murderer was likely in immediate proximity of unsuspecting students and staff. The University delayed giving any warning to the campus and, then, decided against giving an accurate warning. The August, 2007 Report of the Virginia Tech Review Panel, commissioned by Governor Timothy M. Kaine, states, in part: "No mention was made in the initial message sent to the students and staff of a double murder, just a shooting, which might have implied firing a gun and injuries, possibly accidental, rather than two murdered. . . . . The University was not put on high alert by the actions of the university administration and was largely taken by surprise by the events that followed. Warning the students, faculty, and staff might have made a difference. . . . Nearly everyone at Virginia Tech is adult and capable of making decisions about potentially dangerous situations to safeguard themselves. So the earlier and clearer the warning, the more chance an individual had of surviving."

Our firm was successful in achieving an historic settlement that, among other substantial financial and non-monetary terms, ensures that victims’ families and surviving students will have their medical and psychological care resulting from the massacre forever paid for by the Commonwealth.

We have also represented numerous families whose loved ones have been murdered, raped, hazed, assaulted, severely emotionally harmed or killed through acts of negligence. Thus, we have served as lead counsel in states and successful cases across the country, including Texas, Indiana, Michigan, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Tennessee, Colorado, Nevada, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Ohio, California, Mississippi, and others. Our work in this area of law is unprecedented, and the firm’s partner, Douglas Fierberg, is a Founder and Chair of the national litigation group, “Schools: Violence, Misconduct, and Safety,” which operates within the American Association for Justice.

For more information about the firm’s practice in this area, please visit www.schoolviolencelawyer.com.

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