James and Jennifer Crumbley face four counts of involuntary manslaughter each after their son, Ethan, killed four students at Oxford High School in 2021.
Ethan Crumbley was 15 when he opened fire at his suburban Detroit high school in November 2021, armed with a semi-automatic handgun that his parents helped purchase as an early Christmas present.
The rampage left four students dead and several others injured, shattering the close-knit community of Oxford, Michigan, and resulting last month in a life sentence without parole for Crumbley, who was charged as an adult and pleaded guilty to two dozen counts, including for murder and terrorism.
Now, scrutiny falls on the teenager’s parents.
In a rare attempt to hold the parents of a school shooter criminally responsible, James Crumbley, 47, and his wife, Jennifer, 45, are each facing four counts of involuntary manslaughter and will be tried separately, with a trial set to open with jury selection in Oakland County on Tuesday.
They for sure own a lot of the blame but how exactly are they more responsible than the shooter? If that’s not hyperbole then I think you’re way off base. Enabling is never worse than the action itself in my opinion.
Ethan told his mother that he was having mental issues like hearing demon voices and having violent thoughts. They knew he had tortured animals. They bought him a gun and laughed about it when he got caught buying ammunition while at school. They were drunks who did not really give a shit and enabled someone who was very clearly not mentally well.
He has gotten mental help now that he is in prison and he regrets what he did and agrees with the sentencing. The bare minimum of mental health would have avoided this.
He was 15, most likely a victim of intense bullying or some other trauma. This doesn’t excuse what he did but he needed help, not a gun.
I sometimes see people that commit shootings as people with heavy mental disorders and not outright evil as I would see a serial killer for instance. Obviously its very case per case and I’m making huge assumptions about the person.
Because they are the parents and raised him seen the signs refused to get him help and then gave him a gun. They created a monster and then gave a loaded weapon.
That’s certainly not nothing but it’s not the same as shooting up a school either. You don’t have to say the two parties were equally bad in order to say they both did something wrong.
Enabling is always worse than the action itself.