Opinion: Crumbley parents lose their appeal. Why that could be a game changer on school shootings

Editor’s Note: Jillian Peterson, Ph.D. and James Densley, Ph.D., are co-founders and co-presidents of The Violence Project, a nonpartisan, nonprofit research center. They are the authors of the award-winning book, “The Violence Project: How to stop a mass shooting epidemic.” The views expressed in this commentary are the authors’ own. View more opinion on CNN.

CNN
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The parents of a teenager who shot and killed four students at Oxford High School in Michigan in November 2021 are set to stand trial for involuntary manslaughter after an appellate court last week rejected their contention that the charges have no legal justification.

The fact that yet another school shooting took place within days of this decision, as three children and three adults were killed Monday at Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, only underscores the urgency of finding ways to prevent these tragedies.

In the Michigan case, the appeals court acknowledged that holding parents accountable for their child’s crime is precedent-setting, but the judges said the unusual and unique facts of this mass murder require that prosecutors be allowed to make the case for doing so.

The appellate decision is a game changer in the fight to end the epidemic of school shootings in this country. It’s rare for adult gun owners to be charged in relation to school shootings because parents of shooters have a constitutional right to own a firearm, and most states don’t have laws requiring gun owners to secure their weapons when children are in the household. This ruling sends a powerful statement that no child kills in a vacuum – and that principle might be key to unlocking legislation around safe storage and preventing parents from buying guns for children who are a threat to themselves and others.

James and Jennifer Crumbley, who have pleaded not guilty, allegedly neglected cries for help from their son for months and dismissed serious concerns from the school the day before and the morning of the shooting. Yet even as they apparently ignored warning signs, the Crumbleys bought their son a gun and took him to target practice. Fifteen at the time of the mass shooting, their son pleaded guilty in October to terrorism and murder charges.

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