Four children hurt in the December 2024 shooting at Feather River Adventist School in Oroville are now suing the Seventh-day Adventist church, alleging that a lack of basic campus security let an armed stranger wander freely among kindergartners before he opened fire. The lawsuit, filed in Butte County Superior Court, says the school failed to screen visitors, secure its grounds, or stop an unaccompanied man from roaming the halls while children were in class and at recess.
The case was brought by the law firm Mary Alexander & Associates, according to Action News Now, and names three Seventh-day Adventist organizations as defendants: the Pacific Union Conference, the North American Division, and the General Conference Corporation of Seventh-day Adventists. Attorney Mary Alexander said in a statement that “this case is about one of the most fundamental responsibilities a school assumes when parents place their children in its care: protecting them from preventable danger.” Action News Now reported it reached out to all three organizations for comment on the lawsuit.
Laurie Trujillo, assistant to the president and director of the Northern California Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, told the outlet the church is reviewing the court filing with its leadership and legal team, adding that the security and safety of students remain the community's priority at Feather River Seventh-day Adventist School.
How the Gunman Got Onto Campus
According to the complaint, 45-year-old Glenn Litton gained access to the school on December 4, 2024, by falsely claiming he wanted information about enrolling his grandson. School officials allegedly escorted him around the campus while children attended classes and recess, and the principal is accused of having allowed him to leave the office unaccompanied and wander the grounds on his own. Investigators with the Butte County Sheriff's Office previously found that Litton arrived by Uber at 12:11 p.m. and used the alias “Michael Sanders” during his campus tour, per a Butte County Sheriff's Office briefing.
The lawsuit alleges that the defendants failed to adequately supervise campus visitors, failed to secure the grounds and monitor unknown guests, and failed to implement procedures for screening for weapons. It further claims the school failed to properly train administrators, staff, and volunteers on visitor protocols and never adopted an adequate safety and threat-assessment plan. Attorney Mary Alexander said a stranger “entered this elementary school under false pretenses and was allowed to move freely through a campus full of very young children without supervision.”
Investigation findings previously showed Litton had also scheduled a prospective enrollment appointment under false pretenses at a second Seventh-day Adventist school in Northern California, set for the day after the Feather River attack, according to the Associated Press. Records released after the shooting also showed Litton was a former student at Paradise Adventist School and a former member of the Chico Seventh-day Adventist Church, according to a statement from the Northern California Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.
The Children Named in the Complaint
The lawsuit involves four young students harmed in the shooting. Plaintiffs include two kindergarten students, ages 5 and 6, who were shot inside a school bathroom, according to Mary Alexander & Associates, along with two siblings who suffered severe emotional and psychological injuries while on campus. One child suffered three gunshot wounds and extensive internal injuries. A second child suffered a gunshot wound to the spine that caused paralysis in his legs, spent approximately two weeks in intensive care, and was hospitalized for another three months; the complaint states he continues to experience significant limitations in his ability to walk.
Official reports from the time of the shooting identified the two wounded kindergartners as 5-year-old Elias Wolford, whose abdomen and chest were pierced by gunfire, and 6-year-old Roman Mendez, who sustained two gunshot wounds, according to the Los Angeles Times. The lawsuit claims that proper supervision and reasonable safety measures could have prevented Litton from gaining unsupervised access to the students, arguing that allowing him to remain on campus around children without oversight created a foreseeable risk.
A Small Campus and a Chaotic Timeline
At the time of the shooting, Feather River Adventist School was one of the smallest private institutions in the region, with total enrollment of only 37 students across grades K-8, underscoring how intimate and vulnerable the campus setting was during the breach. The attack unfolded fast: writings recovered by investigators showed Litton claimed he was carrying out “counter-measures” against the school in response to U.S. involvement in violence in Gaza and Yemen, prompting Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea to label the attack an act of terrorism.
Litton had been released from a San Bernardino County jail on his own recognizance in late November 2024 following a burglary arrest, and he failed to appear for a scheduled court hearing on December 4, 2024 — the same day he carried out the school shooting, the Los Angeles Times reported. Following the attack, surviving students were bused to the Oroville Church of the Nazarene for family reunification while chaplains and crisis counselors from the Seventh-day Adventist Church provided immediate trauma support, according to CapRadio.
The firearm used in the attack, a 9mm Glock 19 “ghost gun,” was traced back to Phoenix resident Jesse Kitagawa Jr., who was arrested in January 2025 for unlawfully selling the untraceable weapon to Litton at an Arizona motel in April 2024 for $300 — a case Hoodline previously covered. In June, California Highway Patrol Officer Paul Vue was awarded the California Medal of Valor for arriving at the school within 92 seconds of the 911 call, breaching a locked gate, and providing immediate lifesaving medical care to the two wounded kindergartners.
Attorney Mary Alexander said the lawsuit “asks why basic safeguards failed at a place where kindergartners and elementary school children should have been safe.” The complaint alleges broader systemic failures in how the school handled campus visitors and protected its students, and the case now heads into the Butte County court system as the church weighs its response.
