Two Va. Tech families sue for $10 million

ROANOKE | The parents of two students slain at Virginia Tech said Friday they filed lawsuits because they want someone held accountable for the worst mass shooting in U.S. history.

The parents of Erin Peterson and Julia Pryde said they’re seeking the truth about officials’ actions the morning student gunman Seung-hui Cho killed 32 people and himself.

The school has been criticized because it took more than two hours for it to notify students of the first two killings.

“On April 16, 2007, the administrators let our daughters down in ways we are just now learning,” said a statement by Celeste and Grafton Peterson and Harry and Karen Pryde.

The parents sued the state, the school and employees as well as Cho’s estate Thursday, the second anniversary of the shootings and the deadline for lawsuits.

They were the only eligible families who didn’t accept a share of an $11 million state settlement. Their lawsuits purport gross negligence and seek $10 million.

The families said in a statement issued through their attorney, Robert T. Hall, that they declined the settlement because they didn’t have the full story on the handling of the shootings.

“We believe that our suit is necessary to reveal truths that ultimately will benefit all those who have shared in this tragic loss,” they said.

Gov. Tim Kaine said he was not surprised by the lawsuits, and thought it “remarkable that not more lawsuits have been filed.” He declined to comment directly on the lawsuits, as did university officials and the state attorney general’s office.

Mark Owczarski, a spokesman for Virginia Tech, said the complaints contain “some rather outlandish statements.” He would not be specific.

The families said it appeared that the school delayed warning students of the first two shootings in order to present the information in a way that would not harm the school’s image because a fundraising drive was coming up.

After two students were killed in a dormitory about 7:15 a.m., school President Charles Steger convened a meeting with top administrators. By the time an e-mail informed the campus of those shootings, Cho was chaining the doors of a classroom building where he killed 30 more people.

A state panel that investigated the shootings concluded that officials erred in not sending an alert earlier.

But Gerald Massengill, who headed the panel, said Friday, “If the message had gone out and they had locked the school down, who knows if lives would have been saved or not?”

The Petersons and Prydes cited “important inaccuracies” in the state report, but Mr. Massengill said he was proud of the account. The only error Mr. Massengill was aware of was that an interview with a witness in the first shootings occurred a half-hour or more later than originally thought.

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