Since the announcement of the sentencing of the parents of Michigan school shooter Ethan Crumbley yesterday, I’ve been running into a lot of social media responses where people, including conservatives, have seemed to be doing an endzone dance in celebration. James and Jennifer Crumbley were sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison on manslaughter charges, though they will be given credit for more than two years already served. Before breaking out the party hats and balloons, however, I would once again urge everyone to consider the long-term implications of these two convictions. Two people now face serious prison time on a charge of manslaughter when they not only didn’t kill anyone but had no idea that anyone was about to be killed. Who else might such a new interpretation of the rules be applied to? I would agree – at least up to a point – that it certainly feels as if the Crumbleys could have been charged with something, but making the leap all the way to manslaughter still strikes me as very much a bridge too far. (CNN)
The parents of the teenager who killed four students in the 2021 school shooting in Oxford, Michigan, were each sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison Tuesday, weeks after being convicted of manslaughter.
James and Jennifer Crumbley, who each had faced up to 15 years in prison, have already been imprisoned for more than two years since their arrest in a Detroit warehouse days after the shooting. Though they were tried separately, their sentencing took place together in an Oakland County courtroom.
They are the first parents to be held criminally responsible for a mass school shooting committed by their child as the nation continues to grapple with the scourge of gunfire on campus and mass shootings.
The basic approach by the prosecution in this case did not rest on proving any actions that the Crumbleys took. Quite the contrary, they accused the parents of inaction when they should have known better. In fact, the prosecutor, while asking the judge to exceed the sentencing guidelines referred to the “devastating impact of their gross negligence that was foreseeable.”
I suppose there is a case to be made that the parents may have engaged in “gross negligence.” But the problem comes in with the state’s assertion that it “was foreseeable.” Was it really? There are plenty of teenagers out there who act out, create disturbing sketches, or write things that could be interpreted as red flags. Thankfully, all but a tiny handful of them never go on to do anything remotely close to what Ethan Crumbley did. Should all of their parents be charged with something in a court of law? If we’re going to start locking people up for being bad, clueless, or inattentive parents, we’re going to need to start building a lot more prisons.
If the Crumbleys had known or even had a reasonable reason to suspect that their son was going to shoot up a school and still did nothing, then we could likely find a reasonable charge to bring against them. But there was never any suggestion made that Ethan Crumbley revealed his plans to them. He even testified under oath that they had no idea. I will readily agree that a number of his sketches and scribblings used as evidence at his trial could really be described as “disturbing” to a significant degree. Were there steps the parents could have taken such as locking up the firearm or scheduling him for psychological counseling? There absolutely were. But in the end, the people who were just sentenced did not take part in manslaughter. The person responsible was quickly apprehended, sent to trial, and is now serving life without parole.
The entire situation was obviously a tragedy and nobody wants to appear as if they’re coming down on the side of a mass shooter. But it feels as if a very big line has been crossed this week. We heard testimony during the trials that teachers at Ethan’s school had noticed his alarming behavior. Did they not have a responsibility to intervene? Should his teachers be going to prison for manslaughter? Traditionally, the American justice system has sought to hold those who commit crimes responsible for their actions. Now we’re witnessing that same system criminalizing inaction. If that doesn’t concern you, I believe it should.
