The Michigan school shooter’s parents face precedent-setting sentences
Today, the parents of the 2021 Michigan school shooter will cross a grim legal threshold: They will be the first parents in American history to be sentenced for their own criminal responsibility in relation to a mass shooting committed by their child.
In separate trials held earlier this year, Jennifer and James Crumbley were each found guilty of four counts of involuntary manslaughter after their son opened fire in the hallways of his school, Oxford High School, in Michigan on November 30, 2021 — just hours after school administrators had summoned the Crumbleys to campus to alert them that their son seemed to be having violent fantasies.
The Crumbleys face up to 15 years in prison for their roles in the crime. Their son, who was 15 years old at the time of the shooting, was sentenced in December to life in prison without parole. Prosecutors have asked the judge in the trials to sentence both Crumbleys to at least 10 years.
Although the case is precedent-setting, gun rights advocates haven’t really embraced it as a cause, likely due to the troubling circumstances that led up to the shooting.
