When a school shooting happens in America, we cry for the deaths of the little kindergarteners, the high schoolers just embarking on adult life, and the school administrators who try to intervene to stop the violence.
Despite this phenomenon that we, unfortunately, know so well, we sometimes hear from victims or victims’ parents – but seldom from the accused. Because of Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald’s aggressive moves, Michigan citizens finally heard from those in a position to know.
McDonald charged Jennifer Crumbley and she was convicted Tuesday of involuntary manslaughter for her role in the 2021 shooting at Oxford High School.
Her husband, James, awaits his fate in an upcoming trial. The two are parents of Ethan Crumbley, who pleaded guilty last fall to first-degree murder in the shooting that killed four of his fellow students and injured eight others.
Whether you think Jennifer or James should have been charged with involuntary manslaughter or not, through this trial, we had the chance to witness the state asking for answers – both why and how.
Does parental neglect equate to participation?
Ethan, as a minor, could not legally purchase the gun he used to murder his classmates. Someone had to do that for him; that someone was his dad. Someone was in a position to know his state of mind the day he headed to school with a 9mm semiautomatic handgun in his backpack. Should Jennifer or James have known their parental actions or inactions were leading to a disaster?
We get remarkable insight into this miserable story as we watch and listen to Jennifer on the stand, pale and nervous, recounting the family details – both mundane and unbelievably irresponsible – details that are often concealed after a school shooting.
Jennifer’s trial gives us a moment to hear in horror what went wrong.
Babies come with no instruction manual, and neither do teenagers. But there are thousands of opportunities to be present and observant to what your kid is up to.
We make it easy in our country for kids to get their hands on guns. In this trial, Jennifer answers what she knew about whether she was OK with him having the gun, was the gun locked up properly, why she went to a shooting range with her minor son, and whether she should have taken him home after somewhat ambivalent and cautious school counselors met with them and Ethan about overt signs of concern.
The Detroit area jurors were an extension of ourselves: Through them, we finally can hear what went on before the Crumbleys’ son killed other kids. Will there be similarities of common behaviors that future parents and school administrators can definitively be aware of? For instance, is buying a minor a semiautomatic handgun ever a good idea? Is there trouble ahead for a school-aged kid who is looking on Google for where to purchase ammunition? And what about a kid who doodles a manifesto about shooting other people?
Will we now treat similar behavior with the seriousness it requires after we hear from a mother who failed to do so? Will there now be a precedent to hold those parents who act without parental concern accountable for their children’s crimes?
As parents, we can feign ignorance if we don’t know. But, in Jennifer Crumbley’s own words, we have a catalog of red flags and other serious examples that can definitively warn us before the next time someone’s child heads to school with a gun.
We know nothing good could ever come of that.
Now we have a legal record to document the before and after to bring attention to what we, as adults, must do to help prevent another horrific American tragedy.