The parents of a Michigan high school student who shot and killed four classmates can face trial on manslaughter charges, a state appeals court said Thursday.
Jennifer and James Crumbley, the first parents to be charged for their role in a school shooting, each face four counts of involuntary manslaughter after four students were killed and seven people were wounded at Oxford High School on Nov. 30, 2021, when their 15-year-old son Ethan opened fire during school hours.
The defense attorneys for the couple have filed appeals with the state supreme court to strike down the charges, arguing that Jennifer and James were not “directly involved” in the shooting and that their son bears complete responsibility for his planned attack and the resulting deaths.
The Michigan Court of Appeals disagreed with that argument. In an order published Thursday morning, a panel of three judges said the couple’s “actions and inactions were inexorably intertwined” with their son’s actions.
“This connection exists not simply because of the parent-child relationship but also because of the facts showing that defendants were actively involved in [Ethan Crumbley’s] mental state remaining untreated, that they provided him with the weapon used to kill the victims, and that they refused to remove him from the situation that led directly to the shootings,” Judge Christopher Murray wrote in the unanimous opinion.
Ethan, a sophomore at Oxford High in Oxford Township, Michigan, at the time of the shooting, pleaded guilty last October to all 24 charges against him, including one count of terrorism causing death, four counts of first-degree murder, seven counts of assault with intent to murder, and 12 counts of possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony.
According to Oakland County prosecutors, Jennifer and James were called to the school on the morning of Nov. 30 by a concerned school counselor who found that Ethan had drawn on a math worksheet images of a body with two bleeding bullet holes in the torso and a gun similar to the SIG Sauer 9 millimeter pistol gifted from his parents, and wrote “Blood everywhere,” “The thoughts won’t stop Help me,” “My life is useless,” and “The world is dead.” The couple refused to take their son home after the 15-minute meeting.
“When given the option to help [Ethan] and take him out of school, defendants did nothing. They did not, contrary to the recommendations of [the school counselor], take [Ethan] home and get him immediate medical help,” Murray wrote in the opinion, describing the teenager’s actions as a “reasonably foreseeable outcome” of his parent’s alleged negligence.
“Nor, when they decided to leave him at school, did they tell school officials about [Ethan’s] history of mental health issues nor explain to them that [Ethan] had access to a gun similar to the one he drew on the math worksheet.”
In response to concerns that Thursday’s decision might set a precedent where parents could be charged for violent acts committed by their children, the judges said this decision is solely based on recorded evidence unique to this particular case and doesn’t challenge any established principle regarding criminal responsibility for the acts of a child.
“The principle that grossly negligent or intentional acts are generally superseding causes remains intact,” they explained. “We simply hold that with these unique facts, and in this procedural posture and applicable standard of review, this case falls outside the general rule regarding intentional acts because [Ethan’s] acts were reasonably foreseeable, and that is the ultimate test that must be applied.”
Meanwhile, earlier this month, the Oakland County Circuit Court dismissed all lawsuits brought by victims and families of victims of the shooting against the Oxford school district and Oxford High employees, declaring that the school system is shielded by governmental immunity.
The four students killed were 16-year-old Tate Myre, 14-year-old Hana St. Juliana, 17-year-old Madisyn Baldwin, and 17-year-old Justin Shilling.
