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<\/p>\n\u201cThese students and teachers were eyewitnesses to gun violence, murder and emergency life-saving efforts rarely seen outside of a theatre of war, and only in the most lawless of places on Earth,\u201d said John Rice, lead Canadian counsel.<\/p>\n
\t<\/p>\n
He said in a statement that OpenAI had the chance to stop the attack after its staff identified the shooter, 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar, as a credible threat of imminent gun violence months beforehand, but police in Canada weren\u2019t notified.<\/p>\n
The company had banned Van Rootselaar\u2019s account on its ChatGPT platform, but \u201cnothing else was done,\u201d the law firm\u2019s statement said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBased on what we understand the shooter to have discussed with ChatGPT, this murderous rampage was specific, predictable and preventable,\u201d Rice said.<\/p>\n
The claims have not been tested in court.<\/p>\n
In addition to compensatory and punitive damages over what Rice described as OpenAI\u2019s \u201creckless disregard for public safety,\u201d he said the plaintiffs are seeking Van Rootselaar\u2019s messaging history with ChatGPT before the shooting. <\/p>\n
They are also seeking OpenAI\u2019s internal documents outlining the decision not to alert authorities, along with measures to prevent future mass shootings, including obligations for major online platforms to make safety reforms and mandatory reporting to law enforcement for foreseeable acts of violence.<\/p>\n
The plaintiffs include a principal at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School as well as a teacher who shared a classroom and \u201cthe same moment of terror\u201d with her nephew, the law firm said in a separate email.<\/p>\n
Among the student plaintiffs are \u201csiblings who were separated, each fearing the other had been killed,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
The lawsuits are being filed in the Northern District of California, the same jurisdiction where seven previous lawsuits from victims\u2019 families were filed.<\/p>\n
The Feb. 10 attack began with Van Rootselaar killing her mother and brother in their family home before moving to the school and killing five students and an educational assistant. She then fatally shot herself.<\/p>\n
OpenAI and Altman have been heavily criticized after the revelation that Van Rootselaar\u2019s use of the company\u2019s ChatGPT chatbot months before the attack was concerning enough for the account to be banned, yet police were not notified.<\/p>\n
In a social media post, Jason Kwon, OpenAI\u2019s chief strategy officer, said the company was approaching litigation related to Tumbler Ridge \u201cwith respect for both the legal process and the families and victims\u201d and would \u201ccontinue to engage in good faith.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere isn\u2019t a day that goes by that I don\u2019t think about what happened at Tumbler Ridge, or the victims of this devastating tragedy and their families,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
But Kwon said it was \u201ccompletely untrue\u201d those working at OpenAI don\u2019t prioritize safety. They \u201cwork continuously to identify potential warning signals of serious violence,\u201d while also protecting the privacy and security of ChatGPT users, he said.<\/p>\n
Members of OpenAI\u2019s legal department and intelligence and investigations team employ \u201chard-to-define standards and processes for when to report cases to law enforcement\u201d in complex situations, he said in the statement issued Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey use automated systems that leave the toughest calls to human judgment, but within standards to minimize discretion and produce principled decisions that strive to balance security and privacy for the people who use our service and the public,\u201d Kwon said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat judgment is not infallible, but it is always rooted in looking out for this balance for people.\u201d<\/p>\n
B.C. Attorney General Niki Sharma issued a statement saying the province supported the latest claims filed against the company.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are deeply disappointed that OpenAI has made no meaningful efforts to address the harm suffered by those affected by this tragedy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Sharma said the province would work with families and community members in Tumbler Ridge while it explores the potential for its own, separate legal action. Sharma had announced in July that B.C. had retained legal counsel in the matter.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe commitments made by OpenAI\u2019s leadership, including Sam Altman and Ann O\u2019Leary (OpenAI\u2019s vice-president of global policy), have yet to be matched by meaningful action for the people most affected by this tragedy,\u201d Sharma said in her statement on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is not too late for the company to demonstrate a genuine commitment to survivors, families and the Tumbler Ridge community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rushlow, a Grade 7 English and humanities teacher, said in her statement that she had sent her students to the library at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, where police have said most of the shootings would take place.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did not know, nor could I know, that when I sent them to the library with my educational assistant, they were living their final moments,\u201d Rushlow said.<\/p>\n
Another plaintiff, an unnamed Grade 10 student, said in an account provided by the law firm that he had to step over a victim\u2019s body during the school\u2019s evacuation.<\/p>\n
The student said he had witnessed his teacher perform 45 minutes of CPR on the victim in an attempt to save her life, and other students taking refuge with the group in a small storage closet had \u201carmed themselves with kitchen knives and heavy tools, ready to use them if the shooter came through the door.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 2, 2026.<\/p>\n
Chuck Chiang, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThese students and teachers were eyewitnesses to gun violence, murder and emergency life-saving efforts rarely seen outside of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212352,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[150],"tags":[367,21902,21896,21903,21895,21897,21898,50,21899,21900,21901,581,113],"class_list":["post-212705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sam-altman","tag-breaking-news","tag-central-vancouver-island","tag-nanaimo","tag-nanaimo-breaking-news","tag-nanaimo-news","tag-nanaimo-news-now","tag-nanaimonewsnow","tag-news","tag-oceanside","tag-parksville","tag-qualicum","tag-sam-altman","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/117205390913820645","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}