When litigation becomes the public’s roadmap for understanding a school shooting, who decides which questions get asked? Who decides which institutions escape scrutiny?

Three law firms are representing the parents of Rhoam Summer, killed in the Silver Rail Elementary School shooting in Bend, Oregon. They are Dwyer Williams & Cherkoss, Simon Greenstone & Panatier, and Worthington & Caron. The announced investigation includes school security, prior warnings, firearm access, and the weapon’s marketing. Psychiatric treatment, prescription records, and potential state involvement are not specifically identified in any of the news stories or the law firms’ scope of the planned investigation.

This raises major alarms about the agenda already taking shape. An investigation into “systemic failures” should explicitly include the behavioral health system. No institution should get a pass before the evidence is examined. This should not delay another public press conference. None has been held in the past three days.

AbleChild’s public accountability request comes from years of pursuing mass killers’ mental health “treatment” records, prescription histories, and toxicology findings. Our reporting includes:

• Adam Lanza, Sandy Hook: “CT AAG Nervous About Releasing Adam Lanza’s Medical Records: Disclosure ‘Can Cause a Lot of People to Stop Taking Their Medications’” and “Arrest of Psychiatrist Who Treated Adam Lanza May Lead to Answers in Murder Investigation.”

• Nikolas Cruz, Parkland, and Audrey Hale, Nashville: “School Shooters’ Nikolas Cruz & Audrey Hale Were Recipients of Drug Cocktails. It’s Time to Make Providers Accountable.”

• Audrey Hale: “Billions in Funding at Risk If Audrey Hale’s Mental Health Records Are Released to Public.”

• Robert Card, Lewiston: “Newly Released Maine Shooting Documents Skip Shooter’s Mental Health Treatment” and “Maine Governor’s Independent Commission Withholds Important Drug Information on Robert Card.”

• Salvador Ramos, Uvalde: “Texas Officials Stonewall the Truth on Uvalde Mass Shooting, A National Security Crisis.”

These are examples, not our complete archive. Our demand is consistent. Produce the records needed to examine treatment decisions and institutional responsibility.

When lawsuits become tools for steering legislation instead of exposing the whole truth, the people cannot participate in the legislative process to hold government agencies accountable or eliminate bad social programs. Law firms’ narrowing of investigations to selectively target certain industries has exposed political agendas and has failed to stop mass killings. Law firms cannot build the case for new laws. That is the job of the American people. The lawfare approach has left government agencies and behavioral health providers outside the spotlight. That is not full accountability.

The announcement has the appearance of that same pattern. It directs attention toward selected targets without expressly including psychiatric treatment or potential state involvement. That raises the concern of a coordinated effort to narrow scrutiny and protect the state and its behavioral health partners.

Oregon should answer that concern with records, not assurances. If officials maintain there are no relevant connections or conflicts, officials should substantiate that position through disclosure. The public should not have to prove a relationship before officials disclose whether one exists.

The burden of disclosure should rest with Oregon. The public should not have to spend months or years untangling government contracts, treatment relationships, and conflicts of interest with law firms.

Officials should disclose any relevant relationships among state agencies, treatment providers, and the law firms involved. They should identify any state role in the shooter’s care. They should explain the specific legal basis, if any, for withholding records.

The victims deserve representation and justice. However, private litigation cannot override the public interest. These killings are happening across America. The public has a stake that extends beyond any individual lawsuit.

Attorneys should not stand in the way of lawful public access to information. People need that information to examine proposed laws, challenge official claims, and actively participate in the legislative process. Private litigation cannot substitute for public oversight.

Lawmakers should require preservation of relevant treatment records. They should establish clear, comprehensive toxicology protocols after mass killings. Reports should identify the substances tested for, the methods used, and the limits of the findings.

Investigators should obtain prescription histories and document medication changes. They should identify any treating psychiatrists and examine providers’ decisions. They should trace any state funding, contracts, referrals, supervision, and warnings.

A toxicology report is not a treatment history. The public needs an accounting of both.

Oregon officials should hold a public briefing specifically addressing the shooter’s toxicology testing and any state involvement in his treatment. A delay in providing those answers signals a troubling lack of urgency. What substances are being tested for? Which agencies and laboratories are responsible? What samples were preserved? When will findings be available?

Oregon already has a documented failure involving crucial forensic evidence in a child’s death investigation. In 2025, settlements totaling $14 million were announced for Nicholas McGuffin, who was wrongfully convicted in the death of 15-year-old Leah Freeman. The Oregon State Police forensic lab agreed to pay $9 million after failing to disclose DNA evidence.

Do not demand public trust while making the public fight for the evidence. Release the records and put institutional decisions on the record.  The public cannot be expected to trust a process it cannot examine.

AbleChild is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that has recently co-written landmark legislation in Tennessee, setting a national precedent for transparency and accountability in the intersection of mental health, pharmaceutical practices, and public safety.

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