Wrongful death lawsuit filed in Rocori school shootings

Associated Press

ST. PAUL - The parents of two students slain at Rocori High School in Cold Spring three years ago have filed a wrongful death lawsuit that names the school district, the former principal, the young killer and his father, KSTP-TV reported Monday night.

The station reported that the lawsuit contains information that hasn't been released before about warnings it alleges the district had before John Jason McLaughlin came to school Sept. 24, 2003, and killed Seth Bartell and Aaron Rollins.

Jason McLaughlin was 15 when he brought a loaded .22-caliber pistol to school and shot Bartell, 14, and Rollins, 17. In 2005, he was sentenced to life in prison, with the possibility of parole after 30 years.

The lawsuit claims the school district and principal were told a week before the shootings that "an unidentified student planned to bring a gun to Rocori for the purposes of carrying out a shooting."

And on the day of the killings, the lawsuit alleges, there was another warning. It says a janitor found "4-20" written on the school, - a possible reference to the Columbine school shootings in Colorado on April 20, 1999, or 4-20-1999.

The lawsuit also alleges security equipment at the school was not in working order, and that the district didn't have a crisis plan in place.

And it alleges that McLaughlin's father, Stearns County Deputy Sheriff David McLaughlin, provided "virtually unlimited access to a cache of semiautomatic weapons and handguns in the home."

The school district declined comment and there was no comment from the families on the lawsuit, KSTP-TV reported.