mother of a school shooter, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for her role in her son’s actions, the first such conviction in U.S. history.
Parents of shooters have faced legal consequences before, with neglect and firearms charges not being uncommon.
This has sparked a conversation about parent’s involvement in school shootings and if more of them should be held accountable for their children’s actions.
This is an extremely nuanced situation, but I do believe there is an answer.
In the case of Ethan Crumbley, the 15-year-old Michigan student who opened fire at his high school and killed four people and injured seven others, his parents played a direct role in the tragedy.
Ethan texted his mother about “a ghost or devil in the house” and texted a friend that he told his mother about his hallucinations but that she “just laughed at him”.
She later attended a school meeting in November 2021 on the day of the shooting in which a teacher showed her one of her son’s drawings depicting a gun and a person bleeding along with the phrases “the thoughts won’t stop help me,” “blood everywhere” and “my life is useless.”
The school had recommended Jennifer take Ethan out of school for immediate mental health treatment, but the Crumbleys declined to do so and left. Hours later, Ethan opened fire in his school.
In cases like these where there is sufficient evidence of neglect, both of firearms and the parental variety, parents should 100% be held at fault at least partially when their children commit such atrocities.
This is not a blanket statement though. Not every parent is as responsible as the Crumbleys were.
Plenty of kids keep things from their parents and are not open about their struggles. There may be warning signs, but you could be excused for not foreseeing your child committing a massacre as a result of declining mental health.
Parents have noticed these signs and sought help and their children have still gone on to do whatever it was that they were planning to do anyway.
The fault is always primarily with the one holding the gun, but there are steps along the way that can be neglected and ignored that make the process of acquiring the gun and carrying out the shooting much easier.
It is within these early steps that the fault can be shared among the parents who should be involved with their children’s mental state and be cognizant of warning signs to prevent these tragedies.
Parents have a responsibility to monitor their kids when times are at their darkest, when they try to hide the truth and especially when they are opening up to them and expressing what it is that they are going through.
It is a good thing Jennifer Crumbley was held responsible and overall it will set a positive precedent that can hopefully strengthen the conversation around gun violence in this country and continue to move us in the direction of meaningful change so that these tragedies do not happen so frequently.
Once we start to analyze all of the factors that lead up to these tragedies, we will have a greater chance at stopping them from happening again.
But of course, that’s just one man’s opinion.
Categories: Opinion
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