Parkland mass shooting victims' families call out Broward Sheriff's Office for lawsuit delay

Rafael Olmeda, South Florida Sun Sentinel on Feb 10, 2026

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

No one ever promised the grief that followed the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School would go away. But no one predicted the never-ending frustration the surviving families would feel toward a legal system that sometimes seems determined to prolong their suffering.

Nearly eight years after a gunman murdered 17 students and faculty at the Parkland high school, one lawsuit remains to be resolved, a legal action that is supposed to answer a question that has been asked ever since the last bullet was fired. How much responsibility does the Broward Sheriff’s Office hold for its failure to save a single life or spare a single injury?

BSO, a former deputy and two security monitors are the last remaining defendants in lawsuits filed by nearly 60 victims — the families of the deceased, the physically injured and some emotionally traumatized by sights and sounds they will never be able to erase.

Lawsuits were originally filed against the Broward School Board, the FBI and the mental health providers that failed to adequately sound the alarm as the shooter grew increasingly dangerous.

The Department of Justice settled the FBI case for $127.5 million in 2021. The school district settled for $25 million months later.

But not the Broward Sheriff’s Office.

Last week, parents of slain students held a news conference criticizing BSO for filing motions to dismiss the case and, just last month, appealing to a higher court when Broward Circuit Judge Carol-Lisa Phillips allowed the case to proceed.

Such appeals automatically delay the case, threatening the May 2026 start date that had previously been scheduled.

“They are choosing delay over accountability,” said Max Schachter, who lost his son, Alex, in the shooting. “They are torturing the families.” In public, he said, the Sheriff’s Office expresses its sympathy and recognizes its failures. “But behind the scenes they refuse to accept responsibility.”

Schachter, Fred Guttenberg (father of murdered victim Jaime Guttenberg) and Manuel Oliver (father of murdered victim Joaquin Oliver) demanded BSO remove their children’s names from a memorial wall at the agency’s training center in Parkland, saying they should not pretend to honor the victims while fighting the lawsuit filed to hold them accountable.

Andrew Pollack, whose daughter Meadow was killed in the shooting, said he agreed with the other parents about the lawsuit but not about the memorial wall, which he praised as a fitting tribute to the victims.

Sheriff’s Office lawyer David Ferguson said the agency is required to argue for its legal options before trial. “It is understandable that the families of the victims of this senseless tragedy are frustrated at the pace of the litigation,” he said in an e-mailed statement. “Had BSO waited to assert these defenses and immunities at trial, the delay would be compounded.”

Aside from pre-trial rulings that set the stage for settlements with the FBI and the School Board, the families of the victims have not scored significant court victories. In 2022, a jury decided not to impose the death penalty for the shooter, who has since been serving 34 consecutive life sentences.

The following summer, another jury acquitted Deputy Scot Peterson, the armed school resource officer on campus, of criminal child neglect charges for his decision not to enter the building where the shooting was taking place. Peterson, a co-defendant with BSO in the pending lawsuit, argued that he did not know where the gunshots were originating. The case pushed him into retirement.

Victims’ families were disappointed with the outcome of both criminal cases, but optimistic that they will prevail with the civil case when it gets to trial.

Ahead of the Feb. 14 anniversary, the Parkland families are hoping to score an out-of-court victory in Washington, D.C., where a bipartisan group of members of congress announced the introduction of “Alyssa’s Act,” bipartisan federal legislation establishing national school safety standards, including silent panic alarms directly linked to law enforcement. The legislation is named for murdered victim Alyssa Alhadeff.

U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., a co-sponsor of the bill, called it a common-sense measure to keep students and teachers safe in future emergencies.

________