E-FILED

6/20/2023 3:11 PM
CLERK & MASTER
DAVIDSON CO. CHANCERY CT.

IN THE CHANCERY COURT FOR THE STATE OF TENNESSEE

TWENTIETH JUDICIAL DISTRICT, DAVIDSON COUNTY, PART III
AT NASHVILLE

)
CLATA RENEE BREWER, et al.; )
)
Petitioners, )
) Case No. 23-0538-III
vs. )
) CONSOLIDATED
METROPOLITAN GOVERNMENT OF ) **controlling case**
NASHVILLE AND DAVIDSON COUNTY; )
)
Respondent, )
)
PARENTS OF MINOR COVENANT )
STUDENTS JANE DOE AND JOHN DOE; )
THE COVENANT SCHOOL; and )
COVENANT PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH )
)
Intervenors. )

DECLARATION OF LORI ALHADEFF

I, Lori Alhadeff, make the following statements upon personal knowledge:

1. I am a school safety advocate and the Chair of the Broward County School Board, Broward

County, Florida.

2. I have been an educator my entire career. I graduated from The College of New

Jersey with a Bachelor of Science in Health and Physical Education and earned a Master of Arts

in Education from Gratz College. I obtained my certification in Health and Physical Education in

both New Jersey and New York. I was a former K-12 Health and Physical Education teacher; I

coached volleyball, cheerleading, and softball at Union Township School in Hampton, New Jersey;

and I have experience as a Health and Physical Education teacher for children with dyslexia and

language-based learning disabilities. I have worked with children my entire career, and have had

the opportunity to observe how they process joy and trauma first-hand.

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 3. I am also the mother of Alyssa Alhadeff, who was tragically murdered at Stoneman

Douglas High School on February 14, 2018.

4. Since this tragedy occurred, our family has been persistently retraumatized by the

platforming of the shooter’s identity. Not only do we have to live every day knowing that our

beautiful, bright, energetic, happy, athletic daughter was robbed of her life – that I will never see

her graduate from high school and college, follow her dreams, get married, have children, in short,

live a normal life – but I am consistently bombarded with the identity of this monster, the shooter,

by the media.

5. Is it not enough for a mother to lose her beloved and only daughter? Do I also have

to suffer the ongoing trauma of constantly having to be reminded that the perpetrator of this crime

is alive and living his life; that he planned and executed the murder of my child; that he was

inspired by other school shooters; and that he was seeking notoriety through his heinous deeds?

6. Why does my suffering have to take a backseat to the insatiable appetite of the

media for “clickbait” regarding the motivations of the killer of my child? Why does he get a voice

when my child has been silenced by his hatred and his lack of humanity?

7. Chancellor, my one wish is that Alyssa was not killed, that she was alive and here

with us, that she was fiercely pursuing her talents on the soccer field, and playfully and generously

lighting up every room she walked into.

8. But she is gone: I touched every gunshot wound she suffered; I rubbed her cold

body trying to bring her back to life. She is gone, and her killer lives on.

9. As the victims of these atrocities, we ask for peace and we ask for relief. We have

the right as victims to grieve and mourn the loss of our cherished children without having the voice

of their killer haunt us over and over and over again.

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 10. Every community that suffers a similar tragedy is going through what our

community did: every family with children who lost siblings are struggling to cope with the loss

to their family; every child is fearful of going to school; their world has been shattered; and they

will never again feel safe in a public space. Why add to their trauma by allowing the killer to speak

from beyond the grave?

11. I ask you to spare the victims the ongoing trauma that is caused by the mention, the

naming, the notoriety, and the voice that the media has given to the killers of our children. I ask it

in the name of Alyssa Alhadeff, who was murdered on February 14, 2018 at Stoneman Douglas

High School.

To the best of my knowledge, information, and belief, I declare under the penalty of perjury

that the foregoing is true and correct.

Executed this 14th day of June, 2023.

___________________________________

Lori Alhadeff
Mother of Alyssa Alhadeff
School Safety Advocate
Cofounder, Vice Chair of Board, and CEO of Make
Our Schools Safe
Chair of the Broward County School Board, Florida