Family of 15-year-old boy shot at Palmdale high school files claim against campus

PALMDALE, Calif. (KABC) -- The family of a student who was shot by a former classmate at a Palmdale school filed a claim against the campus Thursday.

Juana Dominguez reflected on the shock and fear she felt the second she found out her 15-year-old son had been shot in a shooting at Highland High School.

"I was very hysterical. I was extremely scared. I wasn't sure what to do. I was screaming, I was crying," she said in Spanish.

Robert Ruiz Dominguez said he was horrified with no place to run when the shooter pointed a gun at him and opened fire near the school's bathroom stalls on May 11. Robert was struck in the arm.

"When I go to school, I don't think of myself getting shot. Now that I did get shot, I don't even feel like going to any other school because it happened at one school it could happen at another," he said. "I was just really shocked to see that a gun was pointed at me and feeling the pain after."

The suspected gunman, a 14-year-old former student, fired multiple shots on the campus before fleeing and being caught by police soon after.

"The schools have an obligation to protect our students. We want our children to learn and to thrive. The school here failed to do that. So we have filed a governmental claim, which is the beginning to filing a lawsuit," attorney Bradley Gage said.

Eyewitness News reached out to administrators with Highland High School and the Antelope Valley High School District, which provided a statement.

"We acknowledge that the child and his family have been through a traumatic experience and we have offered them our support since the day of the incident and will continue to do so," it said, in part. "We also continue to work with our law enforcement partners to fortify our safety protocols across all our schools."