Parental Liability: How the Crumbley’s Conviction Marks a New Era in School Shooting Prosecution
School shootings have become a dark, ever-present stain on the American education system. What was once an unheard-of tragedy is now the new normal for many Americans. For the first time in American history, parents have been found responsible for the school shooting their child committed, which could change the trajectory of how the United States prosecutes mass attacks committed by minors. Earlier this year, Jennifer and James Crumbley, parents of Ethan Crumbley, who attacked his school in 2021, killing four students and injuring seven others, were found guilty of four counts of involuntary manslaughter. This one-of-a-kind case establishes a powerful precedent that can hold parents accountable for their actions or inaction and creates a new framework to deliver justice for school shooting victims.
Gun violence in school has become a new reality for our nation’s youth. Firearms are the leading cause of death for children and teens. [1] School shootings have not only become more frequent in the past twenty-five years, being at their highest recorded levels, but they are also becoming more deadly. [2] As with any other public health crisis, intervention is needed. A prominent initiative by those who wish to mitigate and prevent gun violence is to recognize the “warning signs” of violence and act accordingly to prevent tragic consequences. According to the Secret Service, nearly half of the plotters of a school shooting elicited concerns in others by “either exhibiting objectively concerning behaviors and/or constellation behaviors prior to the discovery of their plots.” [3] But should the burden of recognizing potential signs of violence and taking appropriate action be on the parents of the perpetrator? While the Crumbley case may be the first time the parents of a school shooter have been criminally charged with the actions of their child, it is not the first time this question has been raised.
On May 20th, 1988, Laurie Wasserman Dann entered an Illinois school and killed one child, Nicky Corwin, and injured five others. In the case of Corwin v. Wasserman, the Corwins alleged that the Wassermans knew of their daughter’s dangerous propensities and made no effort to protect society from their daughter, meaning they should be liable for negligence. [4] To hold a parent liable for their adult children's act, there must be proof that the parent knew their child had dangerous propensities, took charge of their child, and failed to make a good faith effort to protect others from their child. [5] A good faith effort is taking reasonable actions under the circumstances to protect society from the child’s harmful conduct. A similar question of parental liability was raised in the aftermath of the Columbine shooting, where families affected by the tragedy filed a $250 million suit against Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, parents of the Columbine killers. [6] Yet, no parents have been found criminally liable for their child’s violence–until Jennifer and James Crumbley.
On November 30th, 2021, Ethan Crumbley arrived at his high school in Michigan and killed four of his classmates. It was then found that Jennifer and James Crumbley acted with gross negligence when they bought their mentally ill child a gun, ignored violent and disturbed behavior, and failed to seek out mental health counseling, even at his and the school counselor's request. [7] For the first time in US history, his parents were charged with involuntary manslaughter due to neglecting their parental duties by not “averting the obvious danger their son presented.” [8] Due to their failure to use ordinary care and take action to foresee and prevent the shooting, they were then found guilty of involuntary manslaughter. [9] While some worry this is a dangerous precedent to set and fear that all parents will be held criminally liable for their child’s crime, the Crumbley case is unique due to the level of negligence and preventability if the parents took reasonable care. Not every school shooting will result in an arrest of the child’s parent, but if there is a similar level of gross negligence, an arrest will be warranted and is a step in the right direction for justice in gun violence.
In the aftermath of the People v. Crumbley case, gun violence advocates, families, and school shooting victims celebrated the monumental decision while others argued that these convictions violate the bedrock principle that one cannot be held responsible for the actions of another. This decision does not violate that principle. Jennifer and James Crumbley were not convicted for their son's actions. Instead, they were convicted of their own action of buying their mentally disturbed son a gun and not securing it properly. They were convicted of their own inaction to address their child’s problematic behavior and give their son mental health treatment. It was due to these actions and inactions, ones they have a duty to address as parents and would have addressed if they acted with reasonable care, that their son was able to attack his school.
Other critics of this decision believe that this precedent can be used to target racial and ethnic minorities. In particular, black families are disproportionately impacted by gun violence and face discrimination in the legal system. Black children are more likely to be seen as older and violent, and their parents are seen as more negligent; therefore, they are more likely to face the legal ramifications of this decision. [10] While there is no denying the stereotypes, discrimination, and legislative history of Black parents being targeted for their children’s actions, the decision of whether Crumbley’s case is applied to future parents is highly fact-specific. The decision will be applied on a case-by-case basis if a parent’s negligence is closely tied to the egregious acts of their child or if the warning signs were obvious with “reasonable foreseeability.” [11]
Additionally, some see the People v. Crumbley outcome as an illogical decision. Josie Duffy Rice, a notable journalist who focuses on criminal justice issues such as police brutality, claims as much, stating that it was contradictory that Ethan Crumbley was tried as an adult while simultaneously prosecuting his mother because she should have taken better care of him because he was a child. [12] However, this is not the case. Ethan Crumbley was tried as an adult despite being a minor due to the seriousness of his actions, his premeditation, and his awareness of the consequences. [13] Jennifer and James Crumbley, as legal guardians, failed to take ordinary care to ensure the safety of their child and others, and due to their negligence, the crime was able to occur. Trying Ethan Crumbley as an adult reflects his individual responsibility for the crime while prosecuting his parents addresses their failure to meet their responsibilities as guardians. Both actions reflect different layers of responsibility for the same event: Ethan’s individual accountability and his parents’ failure to prevent reasonably foreseeable harm. Therefore, the prosecution did not argue conflicting points in both trials but rather complementary angles of culpability for both parent and child in this case.
On September 4th, 2024, Colt Gray arrived at his Apalachee High School in Georgia, killed two classmates and two teachers, and injured nine others. His father, Colin Gray, was arrested on two counts of second-degree murder, four counts of involuntary manslaughter, and eight counts of cruelty to children. [14] This marks the second time in American history a parent has been charged in connection to their child’s school shooting. Therefore, it is evident that the Crumbley case establishes a powerful precedent that grossly negligent behavior such as providing your child with dangerous propensities a firearm, failing to properly secure said firearm, and not addressing your child’s problematic behavior that allows them to commit a mass shooting, will result in the parents being held accountable for their actions and inactions.
Jennifer and James Crumbley’s conviction are landmark cases that will usher in a new trend of holding parents culpable when their negligence leads to their child committing violent acts on others. As showcased in the recent arrest of Colin Gray, this prosecution trend is likely to become more widely adopted. This decision will cause the prosecution to begin seriously examining the parents of future school shooters and determining whether negligence or acting without reasonable foreseeability played a role in their child’s crime. While this precedent alone will not eliminate school shootings and other gun violence, it could deter them if more parents reconsider giving their children unsupervised access to firearms. Gun control efforts are highly contended, and delivering justice to the thousands of gun violence victims and their families is still a long time coming, but this case is one step closer to achieving that goal: a safer country for our children.
Edited by Ava Betanco-Born
Endnotes:
[1] Everytown. “The Long, Shameful List of Gunfire on School Grounds in America.” Everytown Research & Policy, 2021, everytownresearch.org/maps/gunfire-on-school-grounds/.
[2] Rapa, Luke J et al., “School Shootings in the United States: 1997-2022.” Pediatrics 153, no. 4 (March 4, 2024): e2023064311. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2023-064311.
[3] United States Secret Service. “Averting Targeted School Violence: A U.S. Secret Service Analysis of Plots against Schools.” www.secretservice.gov, March 2021. https://www.secretservice.gov/newsroom/reports/threat-assessments/schoolcampus-attacks/details-0.
[4] Morgridge, Joan. “When Does Parental Liability End?: Holding Parents Liable for the Acts of Their Adult Children.” Loyola University of Chicago Law Journal, vol. 22, no. 1, 1 Jan. 1990, p. 335. Accessed 6 Oct. 2024.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Tomaszewski, Amy. “From Columbine to Kazaa: Parental Liability in a New World.” Illinois Law Review, February 28, 2005. https://illinoislawreview.org/print/volume-2005-issue-2/from-columbine-to-kazaa-parental-liability-in-a-new-world/.
[7] Cucalon, Ana Sofia . “Jennifer Crumbley - the Mother Prosecuted for Her Child’s Crime.” Northwestern Undergraduate Law Journal, April 29, 2024. https://www.thenulj.com/nuljforum/jennifer-crumbley-the-mother-prosecuted-for-her-childs-crime.
[8] Pope, Peyton . “Locked Down: Parents of Michigan School Shooter Face Criminal Charges – MC Law Review.” Mclawreview.org, 2022. https://mclawreview.org/2022/10/21/locked-down-parents-of-michigan-school-shooter-face-criminal-charges/.
[9] Marchiony, Anna. “A Parent’s Legal Duty: The Crumbleys’ Culpability for Failing to Stop a School Shooting.” University of Cincinnati Law Review Blog, December 13, 2023. https://uclawreview.org/2023/12/13/a-parents-legal-duty-the-crumbleys-culpability-for-failing-to-stop-a-school-shooting/.
[10] Evans, Nia T. “The Trouble with Convicting Parents for Their Children’s Violent Crimes.” Mother Jones, February 12, 2024. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/02/the-trouble-with-convicting-parents-for-their-childrens-violent-crimes/.
[11] Marchiony, Anna. “A Parent’s Legal Duty: The Crumbleys’ Culpability for Failing to Stop a School Shooting.” University of Cincinnati Law Review Blog, December 13, 2023. https://uclawreview.org/2023/12/13/a-parents-legal-duty-the-crumbleys-culpability-for-failing-to-stop-a-school-shooting/.
[12] Gonzalez, Amanda. “The Conviction of Jennifer Crumbley: How a Michigan Jury’s Decision Could Potentially Impact the Prosecution of Mass Shootings in America.” University of Miami Law Review, February 27, 2024. https://lawreview.law.miami.edu/the-conviction-of-jennifer-crumbley-how-a-michigan-jurys-decision-could-potentially-impact-the-prosecution-of-mass-shootings-in-america/.
[13] Del Valle, Lauren, Ray Sanchez, and Lauren Mascarenhas. “Michigan School Shooter Ethan Crumbley Recorded Audio Saying ‘I’m Gonna Have so Much Fun’ the Night before the Carnage, Evidence Shows.” CNN, July 27, 2023. https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/27/us/oxford-high-school-michigan-shooter-miller-hearing/index.html.
[14] Faheid, Dalia. “Charges against Teen Georgia School Shooting Suspect’s Father Push the Boundaries of Who’s Responsible for a Mass Gun Attack.” CNN. CNN, September 6, 2024. https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/06/us/colin-gray-georgia-shooting-suspect-father-charges/index.html.