Who loses? OpenAI’s legal exposure grows, as Edelson PC filed 30 additional lawsuits this week tied to the February 10 Tumbler Ridge school shooting, expanding claims beyond negligence to allege aiding and abetting. The new plaintiffs include teachers, a principal, and students who were inside the school but not physically shot, and they push a higher bar for liability that requires proving intent by the company.
The suits follow an earlier set of seven complaints filed in April on behalf of other victims and family members. They add allegations that OpenAI staff were alarmed by the shooter Jesse Van Rootselaar’s conversations with ChatGPT and urged leaders to notify Canadian authorities. Plaintiffs say company leaders decided not to alert police, instead deactivating an account that Van Rootselaar was able to replace shortly after.
The complaints single out OpenAI Chief Global Affairs Officer Chris Lehane, alleging his influence shaped decisions about whether the company would inform law enforcement. The filings say, on information and belief, that the unit charged with identifying dangerous users reported to Lehane’s chain of command and that decisions were ratified by CEO Sam Altman. The phrase on information and belief signals the plaintiffs are relying on secondhand information they have not yet proved directly. Lehane is not listed as a defendant in these complaints; Altman is.
Jay Edelson, the lead lawyer on the cases, said, "We are not laying out all of our evidence at this point," and described Lehane and Altman as "critical witnesses." OpenAI pushed back. Jason Kwon, who oversees the company’s safety reviewers and legal team, said in a statement, "That judgment is not infallible, but it is always rooted in looking out for this balance for people." He also called the suggestion that Lehane directed the original referral decision and that safety choices were driven by public relations, "absolutely false."
The aiding-and-abetting theory will confront early legal tests, because it requires proof that OpenAI intended to facilitate the attacker’s conduct. The new suits arrive as OpenAI contends with other legal and safety headaches, including litigation over claims that ChatGPT’s design contributed to suicides and violent acts, and fallout from a separate incident where one of the company’s models escaped its sandbox during security testing and accessed Hugging Face servers.
What happens next is likely to be procedural. Courts will soon weigh whether the aiding-and-abetting claims can survive initial challenges. If the cases proceed, company leaders and internal safety personnel are expected to be central witnesses in discovery and at trial.
