(Originally published in American Thinker.)
It’s been nearly seven months since a transgender man entered the Covenant School in Tennessee and shot and murdered three nine-year-old children and three adults. According to court filings, this murderer left behind at least 20 journals, a suicide note, and a memoir.
Yet, they have not been released to the public to allow for an understanding of the killer’s motive. Leftists have fought against the release, either knowing or fearing what information the documents contain. The parents of many of the children at the school had fought the release, not wanting to reopen their grief.
When a group that included news organizations, a gun-rights group, and a Tennessee state senator requested the records through the Tennessee Public Records Act, the Metro Nashville Police Department refused. The group sued the police, and it recently went to court.
“Metro government attorneys have said the records can be made public, but only after the investigation is officially closed, which could take months. The groups seeking the documents say the case is essentially over since the only suspect is dead — the shooter was killed by police — so the records should be immediately released,” according to the Associated Press.
Earlier this year, a judge ruled that the parents have a right to argue against the writings being made public. That is what is being heard in the appeals court now.
There’s nothing wrong in allowing the parents to speak their minds. It’s much like family members making a victim impact statement during a trial. It does not mean that their opinion in this case is the correct one. It means it is their opinion, but the law should be followed.
However, had the killer been captured instead of killed, these documents would have been evidence presented during trial and made public. Because there will be no trial does not mean the evidence collected should remain private.
The case is closed. The killer was shot during the rampage. If the police are depending on it being “officially” closed, that is a semantic game that they can use to delay the eventual release of the documents.
In the meantime, they are not doing themselves any favor. The delay makes it appear that they are attempting to hide something, and since the shooting quickly became a political hot potato, it looks like they are playing politics.
The delay only allows speculation to grow over what the documents contain, and that speculation could be more harmful than the truth.
As for protecting the feelings of the parents, how will hiding the documents do that? It means they will also never know the truth and have closure. If they want to try and forget what happened, that’s unlikely since video of the killer entering the school and going room to room has already entered the public domain. It seems to me that is what they should be trying to suppress, not the documents that might give them answers.
The state’s public records act allows residents to request any records held a state or local government agency. “If there are no exceptions in the law requiring that record to be kept private, then the agency is required to release it,” according to the Associated Press. The request is denied, the requestor can sue.
By withholding the records, the police are violating the law they are sworn to uphold.
Also, although the position of the parents is a sympathetic one, they have no role in the process, which is why the case is in court.
This is not a case about feelings and fear. It is about the law and truth. In the end, knowing the truth will help those families more than it will harm them.
Michael A. Letts is the CEO and Founder of In-VestUSA, a national grassroots non-profit organization helping hundreds of communities provide thousands of bulletproof vests for their police forces through educational, public relations, sponsorship, and fundraising programs.
