OXFORD, Mich. (CBS DETROIT) – The Michigan State Court of Appeals has dismissed a lawsuit brought by victims of the Oxford High School shooting in November 2021.

The lawsuit sought to hold school employees responsible for the tragedy that killed four students, but the Michigan State Court of Appeals agreed with a lower court’s ruling that their claims were insufficient to overcome government immunity.

The defendants would have had to prove that the school district bore primary responsibility for the deaths and injuries that occurred in the shooting.

Government immunity is not so easy to overcome. Typically, the defense must prove that the defendants – in this case, several employees of the Oxford Community School and the school district itself – acted with gross negligence.

A lawyer for the victims explained to us why he believes government immunity should not apply here.

“I think that’s exactly the cause of action that our legislature intended to give citizens when they crafted the government immunity law, and we hope that we can ultimately get the Michigan Supreme Court to agree with that position,” said appellate attorney Chris Desmond.

Desmond says that would be the next step, which is to appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court. He says they have been preparing to take this case there regardless of today’s outcome. He hopes they will take a closer look at these government immunity provisions and decide whether they should apply in this case.

“We will file a brief there asking the Michigan Supreme Court to look not only at the lower courts’ decisions in this case, but also at the series of rulings that have been made over the years on this area of ​​law, sovereign immunity,” he said.

The mother of one of the school massacre survivors says she understands why Michigan has sovereign immunity, but that it should not be applied in connection with the events in Oxford.

“I understand if a firefighter tries to rescue someone from a fire and breaks their leg. They should be 100% protected. I am all for that kind of protection for those positions, but something like this doesn’t make sense to me,” said Meghan Gregory, the mother of an Oxford shooting survivor.