NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — More than a dozen filings in the Covenant case ask the court to keep the shooter's writings away from the public.
The bulk of these filings come from the parents of children who survived the mass shooting March 27, where six people — including three nine-year-olds — died at The Covenant School. The shooter also died after being confronted by police.
The parents in these filings detail their children having post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms following that day. Those symptoms include their children having a hard time attending the school's interim location and handling their everyday surroundings going through life. Some of the children who were friends with those who died still use the present tense to refer to them, as if they are still here, the parents wrote.
"My child wears a 'Hallie' sweatshirt all day every day – a gift from Hallie’s mom," one parent wrote. "It’s 90 degrees here and my child rarely agrees to take it off: a small reminder of the fun-loving, athletic friend who happened to lead the class line that day instead of my child."
The parents' main argument among the filings is the shooter's writings will further traumatize their children and glorify the shooter who attempted to kill their children.
The daughter of Covenant custodian Mike Hill, also filed a declaration, explaining the pain of losing her father and their struggles with the public's fascination with the shooter's writings. Hill was one of the six who died that day.
"It sickens us to have to write a letter to explain why someone who chose to be voiceless does not deserve to be heard," his daughter Marquita Oglesby wrote. "The most devastating part of this is that the memories of the six lives lost have been diminished and minimized while every thought, drawing, doodle, and action of the shooter is made more relevant by every person who wants to decipher them."
WHERE THE COURT CASE IS
The documents are at the center of a legal battle over whether they should be released to the public.
Chancellor I'Ashea Myles is overseeing the case. Myles previously ruled that the Covenant church, school, and families could have a say in what if any, documents should be released.
Metro Police said the shooter had several journals detailing plans for the shooting and had been planning the attack for months. So far, police have indicated it would take a year to analyze all of the writings and documents from the shooter. As of last week, the writings — still in possession of the Metro Nashville Police Department — would go into the newly established Covenant Children's Trust.
It's not clear when, if ever, those documents would make it into the hands of the families. Right now all the documents are in police custody.
The case is set to be in court again on July 12.
Arguments made in the case
Psychologists for both sides of the public records arguments have created filings for their opinions on the case.
So far, different groups petitioned the court asking for the release of all the shooter's documents: Tennessee Firearms Association, National Police Association, the Tennessee Star, The Tennessean newspaper, and state Sen. Todd Gardenhire. All five of those requests have now been consolidated into one court case.
Psychologist Katherine Kuhlman, who is licensed in Arizona in police and public safety psychology, argued in favor of the records remaining public.
"Reviews of the writings of those persons who engage in school shootings can be and has been useful in preventing other acts of similar violence," Kuhlman wrote to the court. "This is because of the simple concept that we learn from experience. The 2021 Report of the United States Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security titled “Averting Targeted School Violence” observed that by studying a shooter’s writings, including the shooter’s motive, 67 plots of violence against K-12 schools from 2006-2018 were disrupted. The Secret Service has been studying such information about shooter motives to prevent or disrupt school shootings for several decades."
Meanwhile, Erika Felix, who is a clinical-community psychologist and professor at the University of California-Santa Barbara, wrote to the court she believed the records should remain private.
"In my visit to Nashville last month, I had the privilege of speaking with people from a variety of backgrounds who were affected by the school shooting, including first responders, people who know someone affected, and some staff at the Covenant school," Felix wrote. "We talked about a variety of things, but if the shooter’s writings were mentioned, I heard feedback about the potential harm that can result on so many levels if it is released. In sum, it is my strong belief that making the writings of a perpetrator of mass violence publicly available will cause harm to the survivor community, risk public safety, and has no potential for preventing a future mass shooting."
NewsChannel 5 has chosen not to upload the full declarations from the Covenant families. The documents include personal details and identifying information about families and children impacted by The Covenant School shooting.
