James and Jennifer Crumbley, the parents of the teenage shooter who opened fire at his high school in Oxford, Michigan, in 2021, are going on trial for manslaughter. They face accusations of making a gun accessible at home and neglecting their son Ethan’s mental health needs. Although pleading not guilty, they face up to 15 years in prison.
Because the Crumbleys are standing trial separately, the tentative schedule sets James Crumbley’s trial to start on March 5, 2024. They are the first parents in the US to be charged in a mass school shooting committed by their child.
Jennifer took the stand on Thursday, January 25, 2024, in her trial for involuntary manslaughter. This comes after the jury heard the teenager blamed his parents for not getting him help before the 2021 attack. The rampage killed four students and left many others injured.
According to the evidence presented at Jennifer’s trial, the teenager described a plan to shoot up his Michigan school in a personal journal. He also wrote that his parents would not listen to his pleas for help. Ethan, who was 15 at the time, pulled a gun from his backpack and went on a shooting spree. Now 17, he pleaded guilty to murder and is serving a life prison sentence.
Hence, prosecutors accuse the shooter’s parents of disregarding the risks by buying a gun for their son a couple of days before the shooting. They allege that despite his struggles with his mental health and contemplating violence, the Crumbleys ignored their son. Prosecutors also argue that the parents did not mention the gun to school officials.
“I have zero help for my mental problems, and it’s causing me to shoot up… school,” Ethan wrote in his journal. “My parents won’t listen to me about help or therapist.” He added that he would spend his life in prison and that “many people have about a day to live.”
The teen wrote that he had access to a gun and ammunition, saying, “I am fully committed.” Following these revelations by an investigator, a prosecutor stated, “Despite her knowledge of his deteriorating mental crisis. Despite her knowledge of his growing social isolation.”
The prosecutor continued, “Even though it’s illegal for a 15-year-old to walk into a gun store and walk out by himself, on the day of the shooting, Jennifer Crumbley chose to do nothing.”
Jennifer’s attorney, Shannon Smith, said Jennifer did not know about her son’s deteriorating mental state. Furthermore, she stated that her client could not have foreseen he would use the gun in a mass shooting. Instead, Jennifer blamed her husband for purchasing the firearm.
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Although the school called a meeting with the Crumbleys a few hours before the shooting, Jennifer accused the school of failing to notify her about her son’s problematic behavior. The parents were presented with a disturbing drawing their son had scrawled on an assignment.
It depicted a gun and bullet and the lines, “The thoughts won’t stop. Help me. The world is dead. My life is useless.” The school recommended that Ethan get help immediately, but the Crumbleys declined to take him home. Both reportedly insisted that they needed to return to work.
Their son stayed in school and later pulled a 9mm handgun from his backpack to fire at students. Several other cases exist where authorities charged parents for shootings carried out by their children, though none involved a mass shooting.
Clinical Professor of Law Frank Vandervort stated that parents can be held responsible for their children’s actions. But the severity in the case of the Crumbleys is different. A panel of judges acknowledged the possible precedent-setting nature of these cases.
The panel expressed, “We share the defendant’s concern about the potential for applying this decision in the future to parents whose situation regarding their child’s intentional conduct is not as closely tied together, and/or the warning signs and evidence were not as substantial as they were.”
The judges further called the situation unique and unusual. The prosecution’s goal in the Crumbleys case is to deter other parents from being negligent. Also, the prosecution wants to make sure that the country has parents who won’t let their children access firearms easily.
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