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In October, Ethan Crumbley retreated from plans to pursue an insanity defense and instead pleaded guilty to two dozen charges that include first-degree murder and the highly unusual state terrorism charge. His parents, who prosecutors say bought him the gun and failed at multiple junctures to intervene in his troubling behavior, remain in jail as they face charges of involuntary manslaughter.
Ven Johnson, the Michigan lawyer representing the plaintiffs in the civil suit against the school district, employees and the Crumbleys, called Michigan’s government immunity law “unconstitutional” because it denies equal protection to those seeking accountability from government entities.
“How is this fair that a parent of a kid who attends a private school would have a cause of action and because our kids went to a public school, they don’t?” Johnson said Saturday.
In Michigan, the bar is high for plaintiffs who sue government workers such as public school staffers: They not only have to prove “gross negligence” but that employees’ behavior was “the” proximate cause of injury.
In other words, Johnson said, Michigan tort law requires that a defendant must be “the” last and most immediate cause of harm. In this case, the judge determined that Ethan Crumbley was the immediate cause when he fired his gun, not the “alleged conduct of the individual Oxford defendants.”
Johnson criticized the state’s government immunity law as a way for the government to protect itself while denying people a chance at accountability through civil action.
“This is a perfect example of how governmental immunity tricks trial judges into thinking they don’t have an alternative but to throw these [cases] out,” he said.
The district did not immediately respond to The Washington Post’s requests for comment Saturday afternoon.
In state and federal lawsuits, victims have said the school district and its employees — including counselors, teachers and a security guard — failed to act on warning signs that Ethan Crumbley was a danger.
In court last year, Crumbley acknowledged bringing a gun to school; his father had bought it for him the week earlier. Then, a day before the shooting, one of Crumbley’s teachers caught him searching the internet for where to buy ammunition, prosecutors said. Jennifer Crumbley never responded when the school contacted her about the incident, instead joking with her son that he has to “learn not to get caught.”
Hours before the Nov. 30, 2021, shooting, staffers had summoned the Crumbleys to school to discuss violent drawings their son had made, including one of a semiautomatic handgun pointed at the words, “The thoughts won’t stop. Help me.”
Crumbley’s parents declined to bring him home from school, and prosecutors say neither school staffers nor his parents searched his backpack, where he had stashed the weapon. Soon after, Crumbley opened fire in the school, killing four fellow students: Hana St. Juliana, 14; Tate Myre, 16; Madisyn Baldwin, 17 and Justin Shilling, 17.
Johnson, the attorney for the families and victims in the Oakland County lawsuit, said they plan to keep fighting to hold the school accountable and are calling on the Michigan legislature to repeal the government immunity law. Meanwhile, the judge’s order has left his clients “devastated.”
“They feel like the law has absolutely abandoned and betrayed them,” Johnson said. “Michigan civil jurisprudence has thumbed its nose at these families.”
A $100 million federal lawsuit that said the school staffers violated the victims’ right to be free from danger under the 14th Amendment is still pending.
