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Families of victims and survivors of the 2005
school shooting on the Red Lake Indian Reservation have reached an
undisclosed settlement with the company hired to come up with
crisis plans for the school.
      

A hearing on the settlement between the plaintiffs and
Burnsville-based MacNeil Environmental Inc. is set for 4 p.m. next
Tuesday in Hennepin County District Court before Judge Lloyd B.
Zimmerman.
      

"The parties have reached an amicable resolution of the case
without any admission of liability by MacNeil Environmental," said
Philip Sieff, an attorney for many of the victims' families.
      

Roger Gross, an attorney for MacNeil Environmental, reiterated
that statement to The Associated Press on Tuesday. Neither attorney
released details of the settlement, reached last month. Details
were not available in court documents.
      

"No amount of money will bring my son, or the other victims'
lives, back," Francis Brun, 73, of Red Lake, said Tuesday.
      

His son, 28-year-old Derrick Brun, was a security guard at Red
Lake High School and was killed when teen gunman Jeffrey Weise
began his attack at the school on March 21, 2005. Weise, 16, killed
seven people at the school before killing himself. He also killed
his grandfather and his grandfather's girlfriend earlier in the
day.
      

Others were injured at the school, including two students who
suffered brain injuries and, according to their attorneys, will
need ongoing care.
      

The lawsuits filed on behalf of about two dozen people -
including injured students, teachers and victims' family members -
alleged that MacNeil Environmental wasn't qualified to create an
emergency plan for the Red Lake School District and that it failed
to follow through on developing and implementing crisis plans.
      

MacNeil Environmental describes itself on its Web site as a
consulting and engineering firm providing schools and other public
organizations with health and safety management programs.
      

According to the lawsuits, MacNeil was supposed to help the Red
Lake School District implement a five-year program starting in fall
2001 to provide a crisis management plan, train school officials
and evaluate the school's security weaknesses. Minnesota law was
changed after the school shooting at Columbine High School in
Littleton, Colo., to require such crisis management plans.
      

The lawsuits claimed MacNeil failed to develop a plan as
recommended by the U.S. Department of Education and provided the
school district with plans that were confusing and contained
conflicting directions for staff.
      

A separate lawsuit against the school district was settled in
2006 for $1 million and distributed among 21 families of shooting
victims.
      

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Families and survivors of the 2005 Red Lake school shooting have reached an undisclosed settlement with the company hired to come up with
crisis plans.

Red Lake families reach settlement in 2005 shooting

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