Michigan mom on trial for son’s deadly school massacre raises questions about parent culpability in shootings

Michigan school shooter Ethan Crumbley’s mother will stand trial this week for her alleged role in the murder of four students.

Jennifer Crumbley and her husband, James Crumbley, face four counts of involuntary manslaughter each in the Nov. 30, 2021, shooting at Oxford High School, where Ethan, then 15, killed 16-year-old Tate Myre, 16-year-old Justin Shilling, 14-year-old Hana St. Juliana and 17-year-old Madisyn Baldwin, and left seven others severely injured. 

“[W]hen given the option to help [Ethan] and take him out of school, defendants did nothing,” a March 2023 court filing from the Michigan Court of Appeals states. It lays out the reasoning for a trial for James and Jennifer Crumbley. James Crumbley’s trial, recently separated from Jennifer’s, is scheduled for March.

On the morning of Nov. 30, 2021, when James and Jennifer met with school counselors to discuss their son’s disturbing drawings just hours before their son shot up the school, “they did not, contrary to the recommendations of [school counselor Shawn] Hopkins, take [Ethan] home and get him immediate medical help,” the filing states.

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“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,” the appeals court added. 

On Monday, Ethan Crumbley filed an appeal to his life sentence without the possibility of parole, and new lawyers for the 17-year-old said they will advise the convicted killer not to testify against his parents at their respective trials, according to The Oakland Press.

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Oakland County prosecutor Karen McDonald has said James and Jennifer Crumbley dismissed school administrators’ concerns about Ethan’s drawings and left Oxford High School on the morning of the shooting without taking him home. 

“The thoughts won’t stop,” Ethan Crumbley wrote beneath a drawing of a gun, which he crossed out before meeting with school officials, followed by, “Help me.” Above a drawing of a bullet, the drawing says, “Blood everywhere.” Further down on the page are other handwritten words and phrases including, “My life is useless.”

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The 15-year-old suspect was able to convince school officials during the meeting that the concerning drawings were for a “video game.” His parents “flatly refused” to take their son home, the prosecutor said in 2022.

“Just got to go to my son’s school and meet his counselor. S— day,” Jennifer Crumbley allegedly texted an acquaintance just before 11 a.m. on Nov. 30 in a conversation about her horse lesson scheduled for later that day.

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Jennifer Crumbley said in another text that morning she still planned on attending her horse training, saying her son was just going through a “hard time” after the death of their family dog, Tank, and “his friend going away to a treatment facility and who knows what else,” according to prosecutors.

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After the meeting, Jennifer Crumbley suggested in another text that she might take Ethan to the horse farm on the afternoon of Nov. 30 after school, saying, “He can’t be left alone.”

She also allegedly texted her boss a photo of Ethan’s disturbing drawing, saying, “I have to go to school. Counselor just called. This is what I’m dealing with.”

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Other evidence filed against the parents so far includes text messages that appear to show how they ignored their son’s pleas for help in the year prior to the shooting. 

Jennifer also said in a Facebook post prior to the shooting that she and her husband purchased the same gun Ethan used in the shooting as a Christmas present for their son. The gun was allegedly not properly secured inside their home, prosecutors have said.

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Neither James nor Jennifer Crumbley asked Ethan during their meeting Nov. 30 “if he had the gun with him, nor did they look in his backpack. And, when they left the school, defendants did not go home and ensure [Ethan] had not taken the gun,” the appeals court filing said.

Immediately after the shooting, the Crumbleys allegedly fled their Oxford home as Michigan authorities issued a be-on-the-lookout alert for the couple after the shooting. They were considered fugitives before U.S. Marshals apprehended them Dec. 4, 2021.

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Their attorneys said they fled for their own safety and turned themselves in several days later.

Attorneys for the Crumbley parents have argued the parents could not have predicted their son’s plan to commit a mass shooting before it happened.

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“We are all here because of me today. Because of what I did,” Ethan said at the end of his sentencing in December 2023, adding that he “could not stop” himself. The 17-year-old also said his parents are not to blame because they “did not know,” and Crumbley did not “tell them” what he planned to do.

After learning that her son was the suspected shooter, Jennifer Crumbley texted her boss, “The gun is gone and so are the bullets,” and “Omg Andy he’s going to kill himself he must be the shooter.” She also said, “Ethan did it.”

 

James and Jennifer Crumbley’s respective trials will be the first of their kind. Ethan Crumbley’s trial was also the first of its kind due to a terrorism charge filed against him.. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life without parole for his crimes, a punishment typically reserved for adults in Michigan.