Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced just earlier today that officials within Oxford High School may be the next on the chopping block to be hit with criminal charges in connection to the tragic, fatal shooting, in which Ethan Crumbley opened fire in his high school, gunning down four of his fellow students and injuring an additional seven.
Now, as tensions, accountability, and criminal charges rise surrounding the tragic attack, Oxford High School appears to be backtracking and attempting to explain away their connection to the tragedy and why they missed (or ignored) all the blatant warning signs their student was exhibiting.
Oxford Community Schools Superintendent Tim Throne released a letter over the weekend, in which he admitted that school officials were quick to accept Ethan Crumbley’s excuses and explanations as to why he was searching up gun ammunition on his phone and had hand-drawn various images and statements of a very violent nature, all while at school. The superintendent went on to admit that officials sent Ethan right back to class, among his peers, despite all of those clear warning signs, after speaking with his parents and they refused to take him home.
“Given the fact that the child had no prior disciplinary infractions, the decision was made [that] he would be returned to the classroom rather than sent home to an empty house,” Thrones statement, appearing to try to explain away the school’s blatant connection to the crimes read. “These incidents remained at the guidance counselor level and were never elevated to the principal or assistant principal’s office.”
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Should Oxford High School officials ultimately be charged in connection to the heinous school shooting, they would be joining a long and ever-growing list of individuals that Michigan state officials are holding accountable in this crime — including Ethan Crumbley himself, his parents Jennifer and James Crumbley, and the accomplice in northern Detroit who allegedly helped hide the Crumbley parents in his art studio as officials went on a manhunt for the pair.
In his letter, Throne attempts to claim that the Crumbley parents gave them no reason to believe that Ethan’s behavior was indicative of plans to hurt himself or others — though he does note that school officials did recommend to the parents that they get Ethan into counseling.
All in all, while the superintendent does claim that he has “personally asked for a third-party review of all the events of the past week because our community and our families deserve a full, transparent accounting of what occurred,” the entire letter reeks of an attempt to skirt any form of accountability — despite reports indicating that Ethan quite literally held the Sig Sauer 9mm that he would go on to use to kill four of his classmates in his backpack the whole while he was meeting with school officials. And no one checked. Though, of course, Thorne has attempted to claim that the timing surrounding Ethan’s possession of the weapon has not been confirmed.
It seems crystal clear to me that Oxford Community Schools Superintendent and other officials within the school system are a whole lot less concerned about determining the truth and a whole lot more concerned about keeping their own asses out of jail where the rest of those connected to this heinous crime are sitting.
All I have to say is good luck with that.
You can read the full report on the school’s response to the shooting from The Daily Beast here.
Featured image via screen capture
