The Michigan Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the Oxford school district in a lawsuit seeking to hold employees partly responsible for the 2021 shooting that killed four students and wounded others. The court, in a unanimous decision, stated that the plaintiffs failed to prove that the staff were the "proximate cause" of the incident. Despite concerns about Ethan Crumbley, it was determined that the teenager made the premeditated decision to carry out the attack.
The ruling upheld a lower court's stance that governmental immunity protected the school district. Under Michigan law, overcoming this immunity requires evidence of gross negligence, a high legal standard. The court concluded that the school staff's actions did not meet this threshold. The families' legal team plans to appeal the decision to the Michigan Supreme Court, while a separate case proceeds in federal court.
Ethan Crumbley, 15 at the time of the crime, is serving a life sentence for the shooting. His parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, each received 10-year sentences for involuntary manslaughter. Prosecutors argued that they ignored their son's mental health needs, gifted him a gun, and failed to secure it properly. On the day of the tragedy, despite alarming drawings and phrases by Ethan, his parents declined to take him home after a school meeting, and neither they nor the school staff checked his backpack for a weapon. (This story was generated by Newser's AI chatbot. Source: the AP)
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