Story highlights

The lawyer seeks $100 million in damages

He says his 6-year-old client was left with emotional scars

The state failed to provide a safe setting, he says

20 children and 6 adults were killed at the school December 14

CNN  — 

A Connecticut lawyer is requesting permission to sue the state over the Sandy Hook school shooting, saying his 6-year-old client was left with emotional and psychological trauma because authorities failed to make a safe setting at the school.

Attorney Irving Pinsky is seeking $100 million in damages on behalf of his client, a survivor of the shooting identified only as Jill Doe.

The girl was at the elementary school during the attack and heard everything including gunfire, screaming and conversations over the intercom, Pinsky wrote in his Thursday letter to the state claims commissioner.

He said the State Board of Education, Connecticut Department of Education and State Commissioner of Education failed to protect his client from “foreseeable harm” by not providing a safe setting, failing to determine whether the local Newtown Board of Education had provided a safe setting, and failing to require the school and the local board to make an emergency response plan.

On December 14, 20-year-old Adam Lanza burst his way into the school and killed 20 children, all 6 or 7 years old, and six adults. He killed himself as police closed in. Authorities later discovered he killed his mother before going to the school.

It is one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history.

“Everybody says they want the state to do the best investigation they can (into how this happened) and I can help them,” Pinsky told CNN. “”I know the Connecticut DA’s office is very good, and now they will take on the investigation because it might cost the state some money” otherwise.

CNN’s Chris Boyette contributed to this report.