The judge ruled that the documents would not be disclosed

Editor’s note: This article contains descriptions and references to gun violence against children.

A Nashville judge ordered police not to release any documents related to the Covenant School shooting at this time in an order released late Thursday night. The decision comes more than 14 months after several groups sued Metro Nashville for access to documents withheld by Metro Nashville following the shooting that killed three children and three adults.

At least one of the plaintiffs who filed the documents suit is expected to appeal.

“School shootings and violence have unfortunately become commonplace in our society,” Chancellor I’Ashea Myles wrote in the ruling. “Access to instant information has also become a social expectation that we all share.

“However, there are times when this immediate access to and demand for information must be balanced and moderated to protect the integrity of our legal system, particularly the criminal justice system.”

In statements made through a lawyer representing the families of Covenant School students, the families of the six victims said they hoped that refusing to disclose documents, particularly the perpetrator’s writings, would prevent copycat crimes and protect them from additional trauma.

Read the full statements: Families of six Covenant victims respond to ruling in documents lawsuit: ‘We are grateful’

Some police-created records could still be made public once the Metro Nashville Police Department’s investigation into the shooting and related criminal cases is complete, Myles’ ruling indicates. Any records legally released under her ruling cannot have been created by the shooter or endangered school safety directly or by potentially inspiring “copycat” crimes.

In his 60-page ruling, Myles was swayed in part by a groundbreaking argument from a group of Covenant School families who argued that materials created by the shooter, including the shooter’s journals, were copyrighted and should not be considered public records. The shooter’s parents transferred ownership of those materials to the Covenant School family group, which allowed them to assert copyright in them.

Myles, who wrote that she spent “countless hours” reviewing nearly two terabytes of materials related to the case, also said she believed that making some of the materials public could inspire copycat attacks at other schools.

The judge said the shooter “studied plans, writings and video materials, including media footage, of former attackers” and idolized them, even imitating some “not only in methodology but also in choice of weapons and targets.”

She wrote that releasing the materials would violate the school safety exception to the Tennessee Public Records Act.

Deborah Fisher, executive director of the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, said that if the ruling is upheld after any possible appeals, she believes it would mean less access to police records.

“It will allow for more ways to keep police records confidential,” Fisher said, adding that granting copyright an exception to the Public Records Act “opens the door” for criminals to keep more records confidential.

“I think the public has an interest in police transparency and fairness,” Fisher said.

On March 27, 2023, a former student entered Covenant School in Nashville and shot and killed six people, including three third-graders. The students were 9-year-olds Evelyn Dieckhaus, William Kinney, and Hallie Scruggs; principal Katherine Koonce; janitor Mike Hill; and substitute teacher Cynthia Peak.

In the days and weeks after the shooting, reporters and others requested documents related to the shooting. Nashville police denied many of those requests.

In response, six groups, including The Tennessean, sued Metro Nashville about a month after the shooting, asking the court for an order granting them access to several different documents, most notably a pair of journals found in the shooter’s home and car, which was parked at the school.

The case is emotional and complex.

Initially a dispute between the city and a handful of document requesters — including a newspaper and a reporter, a conservative news website and its editor, a state senator, a former sheriff, a member of the National Police Association and the Tennessee Firearms Association — those groups soon began to argue with families of Covenant students.

In May 2023, Myles allowed Covenant School, Covenant Presbyterian Church and a group of more than 100 parents of Covenant School students to intervene in the case to oppose the release of the records, a decision that was upheld by the Tennessee Court of Appeals.

That development already made the case unusual, but it became even more complicated when a prominent attorney announced in Myles’ court that the shooter’s parents were transferring ownership of the shooter’s journals to the Covenant family group. That transfer was finalized in court, Eric Osborne, a lawyer for the parents, said in April.

As the case unfolded, a conservative media personality released three pages of the shooter’s journals that he had leaked. MNPD did not identify the source of the leak. Additional leaked materials were released in June.

Attorneys for all three sides clashed during a two-day hearing in April, when the differences in their positions became clear. On one side, the petitioners argued that none of the exceptions to the Tennessee Public Records Act applied to the case. The Covenant groups argued that several exceptions did apply, including school safety — some records can reveal security information — and protecting their copyrights as owners of the shooter’s journals, an argument that Myles called “novel.”

More: With Few Victories So Far, Covenant Parents Prepare for Long-Term Gun Law Reform

Metro has come between the two groups, though closer to the petitioners. The city cited the ongoing investigation into the shooting as the reason for withholding disclosure and said that documents related to “pending or planned criminal action” are exempt from disclosure under public records law. But it has made clear that its position is to release the documents, including the shooter’s diary, with appropriate redactions after the police department completes its investigation, unless a court orders otherwise. A police lieutenant estimated on March 1 that the investigation would take another four months.

At the hearing, Osborne read a statement from one of the parents of a child killed in the shooting. “May this evil die with the shooter,” Osborne read. “May we deny her any victory in death. May her name, her face, her writings be erased from history.”

Myles concluded the April hearing with a compassionate speech to the families affected by the shooting, while promising to deliver an impartial verdict.

“I want you all to know that I am sorry,” she said. “Please know that I do not take this burden lightly and I realize that this decision not only impacts the parents, the community, the children, but will have a broad impact on the entire state of Tennessee.”

Timeline: The Covenant School Shooting and the Dramatic Year That Followed It

Myles said she was ready to issue a ruling in mid-June but held back when she was notified of the publication of more leaked information from the shooter’s journals by the Tennessee Star, a conservative news outlet and party to the case. Myles initially threatened sanctions and contempt of court proceedings against the Star and its editor, Michael Patrick Leahy, but withdrew after a tense, somewhat confusing hearing to “get her bearings” after the leak.

According to the complaint, The Tennessean cited a desire to uncover “additional facts about this incident, social and mental health issues, and firearms issues more broadly that have not already been disclosed through other means” in seeking the documents.

The documents requested by The Tennessean include documents in the shooter’s possession prior to his death, including those found in his car and home; all police reports about the shooter held by MNPD; all calls to Covenant School and the shooter’s home from the past five years; and incident reports completed by MNPD at the shooter’s home on March 27.

The Tennesseean has no intention of publishing the full story and is committed to focusing on public policy, victims and community.

Evan Mealins is a justice reporter for The Tennessean. Contact him at [email protected] or follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @EvanMe AND lin.

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The judge ruled that the documents would not be disclosed

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