Justice Department Cancels Covenant School Shooting ‘Lessons Learned’ Seminar

Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake speaks during a press briefing in Nashville, Tenn. on July 28, 2021. (Courtesy of Metropolitan Nashville Police Department)

As the public remains in the dark about why the Nashville Christian school shooter decided to go on her deadly rampage last March, killing three children and three adults at The Covenant School, the U.S. Department of Justice, alongside Nashville police, had planned a virtual seminar on the “lessons learned” from the incident for later this month.

The seminar, announced through a now-deleted page on the DOJ’s “Office of Justice Programs” (OJP) website, has since been canceled but raises questions about what information has been learned from the incident and why it has not been made public.

A representative from the DOJ OJP office confirmed to The Epoch Times on Tuesday that the event had been canceled but did not provide additional details as to why. The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department stated in an email to The Epoch Times the event was canceled and referred the question of why to the DOJ.

“Yes, [the event] was canceled last week,” said Tannyr Watkins, Media Affairs Specialist with OJP’s Office of Communications, in an email, adding he would look into why it was canceled in response to a follow-up question. No response has been received as to the publication of this article.

The event’s website noted the page was created on Feb. 12 before being completely removed on Tuesday, Feb. 20, after The Epoch Times requested confirmation the event had been canceled.

That outlet first published a story on the event on Feb. 19 before updating it to include the cancelation the next morning, with no details as to why the event was suddenly canceled following their own coverage of the event.

What Was Planned

The event page noted the event was to occur on Feb. 29 via Zoom, led by MNPD Captain Steven Bowers, the commanding officer of MNPD’s School Safety Division at the time of the shooting.

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“On March 27, 2023, the nation suffered a mass shooting at The Covenant School, a parochial school in Nashville, Tennessee,” the event notice stated. “In the incident, three children and three adults were killed by a single armed suspect, who was also killed in the response by the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department (MNPD).”

The event listing goes on to detail that Mr. Bowers would provide “an overview, review factors that may have contributed to the violence, and share lessons learned on effective prevention, response, and recovery strategies.”

After his presentation, participants, who were limited to only sworn law enforcement personnel, would be given an opportunity to engage Mr. Bowers with “questions about lessons learned in the event.”

The event listing ended with the goals of the seminar as leaving participants able to “identify specific opportunities and strategies to prevent and effectively respond to school violence.”

It continued, noting participants would be able to “Extend lessons learned from this case study into their local critical response planning for school violence incidents to improve the capacity to respond in an effective and compassionate manner, including recovery that occurs beyond the critical incident itself,” and “Identify and apply strategies that build collaboration and coordination to enhance school emergency preparedness.”

Public In the Dark

A pending lawsuit in Nashville Chancery Court will resume proceedings in April, with the first substantive arguments being heard by the court from those seeking to force MNPD to turn over the writings and journals the shooter left behind, two pages of which were leaked last year by a podcaster.

In a hearing last month, Chancellor I'Ashea Myles set the dates for the hearings to resume in April, after the one-year anniversary of the shooting, as they had been paused since last summer following the case’s transfer to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.

Parties had appealed an earlier ruling by Ms. Myles, which allowed third parties—including The Covenant School, parents and victims, and the Covenant Presbyterian Church—to intervene in the case and present arguments regarding their objections to the release of the documents.

In November, the appeals court ruled that Ms. Myles did not err in allowing the third parties to intervene. The decision moved the case, now with the additional parties, back to the county’s chancery court.

The April hearings will mark the first time the court hears the case’s merits in oral arguments, as these have not yet been presented. The immediate appeal of the court’s decision to allow intervention led to a higher court issuing a stay. This stay, issued last June, halted all proceedings while the appeal process unfolded.

The court noted availability in March, but Ms. Myles and her attorneys expressed a desire to avoid scheduling court dates on or near the anniversary of the shooting.

The parties sued MNPD for refusing to release the documents. The shooter was killed at the scene of the crime by police, rejecting MNPD’s reason for not releasing the documents, which was a Tennessee rule that allows public records exceptions for ongoing investigations.

The event and the language used regarding “lessons learned” indicate there are indeed lessons that can be learned from the release of the shooter’s documents, something the parties suing MNPD to get access to the shooter’s writings have argued in court filings.

Opponents argue the release could encourage “copycat” shooters and claim the risk of such outweighs any benefit of learning why the shooter did what she did. Parties have also argued against the release, arguing the possibility of a negative mental health impact on victims and families if the shooter’s motivations are made public.