Broward Schools tries to limit questioning of its employees in shooting lawsuit
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. _ The Broward School district has moved to clamp down on having its employees questioned in a civil suit filed by a Parkland father related to the February 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
On Monday, an attorney for the school system asked a Broward Circuit Court judge to cancel the depositions of seven school officials, including three assistant principals who worked at the school.
"This lawsuit should not be a fishing expedition allowing the plaintiffs and their counsel to depose any of the thousands of district employees," wrote the lawyer, Eugene K. Pettis.
Pettis also asked the judge to narrowly focus any questioning of employees, bar the media from attending, and prevent participants from sharing testimony with journalists.
"Much of the questioning appears calculated to harassing the witness, detracting from the pending litigation, and generating media attention which, in and of itself, could be seen as an effort to taint the local jury pool."
The court motion is the latest effort by the school district to carefully control what information is made public about the school shooting that injured 34 people, killing 17 of them.
The suit was filed by Andrew Pollack and Shara Kaplan, the parents of Meadow Pollack, who died on the school's third floor. She was a senior.
_ South Florida Sun Sentinel
