Let’s start with a somewhat disturbing punishment: The parents of murderous school shooter Ethan Crumbley have been convicted of involuntary manslaughter, first the mother in February, now the father. The case was prosecuted by Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald. They were convicted of four counts each with penalties up to 15 years in prison, with sentences to run concurrently. Their son was convicted earlier as an adult and sentenced to life in prison.
Granted, mass shootings are terrible, tragic, and preventable. But I have questions:
1) If you decide that a teen is adult enough to face adult levels of punishment for his crimes — in this case, life in prison without possibility of parole — isn’t it also obvious that he must be adult enough to decide to commit those crimes without guidance by his parents? Or to turn it around, if you think these parents should have been closely watching and guiding this child, why are you trying him as an adult?
2) Granted, his parents made mistakes. Most notably, his father buying him a gun! They knew school officials were concerned, but wouldn’t any parents be in denial about their child being a mass murderer in the making? But the school also made significant mistakes. Yet the parents are charged with manslaughter and no one at the school was charged with any crime, and the prosecutor has said they will not be charged.
3) The articles point out that this case sets a precedent and more parents are likely to be charged for their children’s crimes in the future. How much would you like to bet that any such prosecutions will be highly subjective, focusing on the poor, women and/or minorities?
The involuntary manslaughter charge hinges on the prosecution convincing a jury that each parent played a role in the deaths and that they were the result of unlawful negligence, although neither parent intended for people to die.
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The following day [a few days after he received the gun and one day after he’d been caught trying to buy ammunition], a teacher said she found a note on his desk with a drawing of a gun and a person who was shot, and messages including, “The thoughts won’t stop. Help me.” Ethan Crumbley was sent to meet with a school counselor, and he explained the drawing was done as part of a video game design, school officials said. But his parents were called to a meeting that same day; counselors observing him would later say they didn’t believe he was going to engage in any violence based on his demeanor.
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“I think evidence is going to boil down to when the parents and the school administrators are in the same room, and Ethan has yet to act,” Kelly [a lawyer who has represented disciplined students] said. “The big question is whose duty and whose job was it to do something?”
It seems to me that the professionals should be responsible more than the parents. Also, at most there should have been one charge of negligently allowing a child access to a gun. Four manslaughter charges apiece is vastly overcharging IMO. If they hadn’t noticed him making a bomb in the garage and he’d blown up 100 people, would they have faced 100 manslaughter charges apiece? It should be one charge at most, probably of the father who gave him the gun rather than the mother who went along with it. OTOH, that was not against the law at the time that the shooting took place.
And we always say their names: The victims were Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Tate Myre, 16; Hana St. Juliana, 14; and Justin Shilling, 17. The loss of life is very sad.