Oliver Citywide Academy
PITTSBURGH - Pittsburgh's board of education faces a wrongful death lawsuit over a 2023 shooting at Oliver Citywide Academy that claimed the life of a 15-year-old boy.
Police arrested then-15-year-old Jaymier Perry in May 2023 for the shooting of Derrick Harris, and Harris' mother Erin Krall has now brought a civil suit almost two years later against the Board of Public Education of the School District of Pittsburgh.
Harris had just exited a van that brought him to school that morning when he was shot multiple times. ShotSpotters counted 11 rounds, and Harris died from his injuries at a hospital.
The shooting sparked outrage from teachers at the special education academy, which was the site of another murder more than a year earlier. Eugene Watson ultimately pleaded guilty to third-degree murder after shooting 15-year-old Marquis Campbell while Campbell sat in a transport van.
It was reported that Harris was texting Krall about his 16th birthday, which was a week away, before he was killed.
The complaint says the school district had told parents in the wake of the previous shooting that two employees would escort each student between the van and school. And given there was also an incident of a student attacking a teacher and attempting to rape her, Krall’s lawyer Kenneth Nolan of Phil DiLucente & Associates said security should have been a much higher priority.
“(H)is parents remain devastated by the loss of their 15-year-old son,” Nolan told the Pennsylvania Record. “It is frustrating to Derrick’s parents that the premises remained dangerous after the two prior events.”
Nolan’s complaint also noted Perry had been a student at Arsenal Middle School, where he was allegedly involved in a "violent assault on a security guard."
"In glaring violation of the Defendant School District's many pronouncements of the critical importance of providing a safe school environment for its students, including Decedent, and recognizing threatening behavior on the part of students at its schools, the defendant transferred Jaymier Perry, knowing of his violent propensities, from Arsenal Middle School to Oliver Citywide Academy," the lawsuit says.
"The Defendant School District knew of the dangerous propensities of Jaymier Perry."
The complaint makes 24 arguments on the district's alleged failures, including not reporting Perry to a threat assessment team, not implementing adequate safety policies and failing to train employees on safe and proper procedures.
