Tennessee appeals court says school shooter’s writings can be made public
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The writings of the person who killed three 9-year-olds and three adults at a private Christian elementary school in Nashville can be made available to the public, the Tennessee Court of Appeals ruled on Wednesday.
The ruling is part of a yearslong dispute over public records surrounding the 2023 shooting that likely is not over yet. The shooter left behind documents that include journals, a suicide note and a memoir, according to court filings. A group of Covenant parents has been fighting to keep them from being released out of fear that the writings will further traumatize their children and could inspire copycat attacks.
A lower court ruling in 2024 sided with the parents. The Wednesday ruling overturns much of that opinion.
The court battle could set a precedent for how similar records will be treated in cases involving school shootings. But it might not change what the public knows about this particular case. Many of the documents have already been made public, either through leaks or by the FBI through a separate public records request and lawsuit. However, the full investigative report from Nashville police remains sealed.
Quoting from earlier court rulings, the appeals court on Wednesday explicitly noted the importance of the Tennessee Public Records Act as “a tool to hold government officials and agencies accountable to the citizens of Tennessee through oversight in government activities.”
The lower court’s 2024 ruling found that the Covenant shooting records fall under an exception to the Public Records Act because they are related to school safety. In the Wednesday ruling, the appeals court said that interpretation of the school safety exception was overly broad.
“We are asked to accept at face value the trial court’s finding that every single item compiled or created by the shooter, for many years before the event at issue, relates to the Covenant School’s security. This conclusion strains credulity,” the appeals court wrote.
The 2024 ruling also found that any writings or other works created by the shooter could not be released because they were protected by federal copyright law. As part of the effort to keep the records closed, the shooter’s parents transferred ownership of the documents to the Covenant families in 2024. The parents then argued in court that they should be allowed to determine who has access to them.
In Wednesday’s ruling, the appeals court opined that even if some of the records are protected by copyright law, Metro Nashville Police could still allow the public to inspect them without running afoul of the law.
“The trial court and the Parents, however, conflate the concept of access for inspection with reproduction and display,” the appeals court wrote.
The appeals court sent the case back to the lower court to amend the 2024 ruling. The Covenant parents have 60 days to appeal, and their attorney, Eric Osborne, said in an email Thursday that they have not yet decided what they will do.
Those killed in the March 2023 shooting were Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney, all 9 years old, and adults Cynthia Peak, 61; Katherine Koonce, 60; and Mike Hill, 61.