On Nov. 30, 15-year-old sophomore Ethan Crumbley fatally shot four students and injured at least eight others in a mass shooting at Oxford high school in Michigan. The suspect was charged as an adult with one count of terrorism and four counts of first-degree murder. Prosecutors also filed an involuntary manslaughter charge against Ethan’s parents.  

Four days before the shooting, the suspect’s parents, Jennifer and James Crumbley, bought the semiautomatic handgun later used in the deadly rampage as an early Christmas gift. Jennifer Crumbley even posted about the gun on social media. 

“As a same sophomore in high school, I cannot imagine my peers committing such a crime,” Jacqueline Lee (10), a sophomore at SIS, said. “Although I am not completely sure as to why he shot members at his school, based on his drawings, I think it is plausible to say that he was dealing with depression or some sort of mental illness.” 

The day prior to the shooting, a teacher had seen Ethan Crumbley searching online for ammunition for his gun during class. School officials attempted to reach out to Jennifer Crumbley that day, only for her to respond the next day. Prosecutors later found that Jennifer texted her son warning him not to get caught.

The morning of the shooting, the suspect’s parents were called into school after a teacher found an alarming note drawn by Ethan. The suspect had scribbled a laughing emoji, images of a gun, a shot person, and the words, “Blood everywhere, the thoughts won’t stop. Help me.” 

However, Ethan’s parents refused to remove their son from school that day. The suspect was also not asked whether he was in possession of a gun, nor was his backpack searched. This led prosecutor Ms. McDonald to believe that the gunman’s parents are partially responsible for the shooting. 

“Honestly, if you are a free society who is able to govern itself, everyone is responsible for something like the Oxford shooting,” Gray Macklin, Vice-principal at SIS, said. “If we do not control gun production, school shootings are going to continue to happen, and parents are going to continue to make bad decisions as well.”