She had just taken her son out to target practice in what she described on social media as a 鈥渕om and son day testing out his new Christmas present:鈥� a 9-millimeter pistol the high schooler referred to online as 鈥淢y new beauty.鈥�

The images were pivotal to an unprecedented conviction this week that legal scholars predict could create a new tool for prosecutors as the nation looks for ways to stem a record-setting uptick in mass shootings.

鈥淭his is the last picture we have of that gun until we see it murder four kids on Nov. 30, and the person holding it is Jennifer Crumbley,鈥� Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said before a jury convicted the mother on four counts of involuntary manslaughter 鈥� one for each of the students her son gunned down at Oxford High School. 

鈥淪he鈥檚 the last person we see with that gun,鈥� McDonald said. 

Crumbley is the first parent to be held directly responsible for a school shooting carried out by their child, turning on its head a bedrock legal principle: People cannot be held responsible for the actions of others.

鈥淟ook, I thought this case could go either way and still when the result came out I was a bit stunned because it鈥檚 such a deep legal principle,鈥� Ekow Yankah, a University of Michigan law professor, told 社区黑料.

And if other parents are charged in connection with shootings acted out by their children, Yankah said, the Crumbley conviction may make them more likely to accept a plea deal behind closed doors.

鈥淧rosecutors will be tempted to use this power in ways that we don鈥檛 see,鈥� he said. 鈥淎 prosecutor is going to sit across from a parent when people are crying out for somebody to be held accountable and the prosecutor is going to be able to say, 鈥業鈥檓 offering you three years to five years in prison, but if you don鈥檛 take this deal, I will prosecute for 15 years.鈥� 鈥� 

For gun control advocates and the parents of children killed in their classrooms, the landmark trial鈥檚 outcome was welcomed. Craig Shilling, the father of Oxford shooting victim Justin Shilling, told a local TV station the conviction is 鈥渄efinitely a step towards accountability.鈥� About three-quarters of school shooters obtain their guns from a parent or another close relative, according to a . In about half of cases, the guns had been readily accessible. 

The conviction is in many ways a watershed moment that hinged heavily on portrayals of Crumbley as a neglectful mom who paid more attention to her horses and an affair than to the son she鈥檇 gifted a gun to as he struggled with his mental health and exhibited violent behaviors. 

In this case, the gunman was charged as an adult while his mother was found guilty of crimes that stemmed from her role as an egregiously aloof and reckless parent. The gunman pleaded guilty in October 2022 to 24 charges, including first-degree murder and terrorism causing death, and was sentenced to life in prison without parole in December. 

The shooter鈥檚 father, James Crumbley, is scheduled to face a similar trial next month. 

Yankah, the UMichigan law professor, told 社区黑料 he wasn鈥檛 aware of any other cases where a parent was held liable for the crimes of a child who was simultaneously considered 鈥渁 legal agent鈥� and therefore responsible for his own actions. 

It鈥檚 not the first time a parent has been held legally responsible for crimes committed by their children 鈥攊ncluding in helping their child secure a firearm later used in a mass shooting. Still, experts said the Crumbley case does present a significant escalation in a generations-long push to hold parents accountable for the misdeed of their kids.

One , published in the Utah Law Review in 2008, noted that such efforts appeared cyclical, noting that 鈥渆very couple of decades or so鈥� lawmakers claimed to 鈥渄iscover鈥� the idea of holding parents to account for teenage crimes. 

Punishing parents

which impose civil or criminal liability on adults under the premise that their failures to take control as parents led to their kids鈥� bad acts. There is research that ties youth delinquency to poor parenting. 

One recent parental responsibility law, , specifically addressed guns. It imposed civil liability on parents for negligence or willful misconduct if they allow their minor children to use or possess guns if the child has been adjudicated delinquent, was convicted of a crime, has the propensity to commit violence or intends to use the weapon unlawfully. 

Efforts to hold parents accountable for their children鈥檚 behaviors are rooted in the very origins of the nation鈥檚 juvenile justice system in the early 1900s, which authorized the state to intervene when parents failed in their duties, and their constitutional implications. By the 1970s, the report notes, lawmakers began to place a greater emphasis on parents as a factor in juvenile crime and turned to

Little is known, however, about whether such efforts have been effective in reducing juvenile crime. Eve Brank, a professor of law and psychology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, told 社区黑料 that she is unaware, after decades of researching the emergence of parental responsibility laws, of 鈥渁ny empirical research that shows that imposing punishments on parents because of the actions of the children will decrease juvenile crime.鈥�

She is also unaware of any data indicating how frequently those laws are used. In 2015, she , who reported infrequent enforcement. Through her research, Brank has identified three types of such laws: civil liability, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and parental involvement. 

Under the statutes, parents can be held responsible for helping or encouraging their child to commit a crime and financially liable for damages. They can also be required to pay fines or attend parenting classes due to their children鈥檚 criminal acts. 

Among them are truancy laws, which require students to attend school. In New Jersey, for example, parents who don鈥檛 compel their children to attend school can face disorderly conduct charges and fines. Such efforts, however, have been heavily criticized 鈥� including during the 2016 presidential election when Vice President Kamala Harris was that imposed jail time and fines on parents in truancy cases while she served as state attorney general. 

In 2017, Pennsylvania lawmakers reformed state truancy rules and made them less punitive after a Reading County woman was found dead in 2014 while serving a two-day jail sentence for her children鈥檚 truancy because she was unable to pay a $2,000 fine. 

鈥淢any of those statutes came under a lot of strain in the last say 15 years,鈥� including ones around truancy, Yankah said, adding that people were skeptical about whether they addressed the root causes underlying the social problems they sought to address and could uphold long standing racial disparities in the judicial system. 鈥淔rankly, communities of color really learned that 鈥� as is so often the case 鈥� when we pass more criminal statutes the people who are in the crosshairs are politically vulnerable. It was a lot of Black mothers, and so those statutes kind of faded out of popularity.鈥� 

In some cases, parental responsibility laws have failed under court scrutiny. Among them is an ordinance in Maple Heights, Ohio, that for 鈥渇ailing to supervise a minor鈥� if their child committed what would be considered a misdemeanor or a felony if it had been carried out by an adult. The in 2008 after a parent faced charges after her 17-year-old son was accused in juvenile court of carrying a concealed weapon, resisting arrest and failing to comply with a police officer. 

Meanwhile, officials have also sought to hold parents responsible when their children bully other kids. In 2016, the city council in Shawano, Wisconsin, passed an ordinance that on parents who failed to address their child鈥檚 harassment directed at other kids. 

In a high-profile cyberbullying case from 2013, a Florida sheriff bemoaned his of a girl who was charged criminally for harassing a 12-year-old classmate so relentlessly online that it led the girl to die by suicide. Among the harassment was an online message encouraging the 12-year-old to 鈥渄rink bleach and die,鈥� yet the parents continued to give the bully access to social media. 

鈥淚鈥檓 aggravated that the parents aren鈥檛 doing what parents should do,鈥� Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd told reporters at the time. 鈥淩esponsible parents take disciplinary action.鈥� 

A new category of parental responsibility

Crumbley鈥檚 conviction, Brank said, 鈥渄oesn鈥檛 fit into any of these categories鈥� of traditional parental responsibility laws and is instead a first-of-its-kind extension of the manslaughter statute. 

As officials seek to crack down on mass shootings, the Crumbley case is one of several recent examples where prosecutors sought to hold parents accountable when their children carried out what once were unthinkable acts of violence.

In December, a Virginia mother was for felony child neglect after her 6-year-old son brought a gun to his Newport News elementary school and shot his first-grade teacher. In a separate prosecution, the mother pleaded guilty to using marijuana while owning a firearm and for making false statements about her drug use. 

In a separate prosecution that may have laid the groundwork for the Crumbley case, to misdemeanor reckless conduct on charges that stemmed from a shooting carried out by his son at a 2022 Highland Park Independence Day parade, which left seven people dead. That case centered on how his son, who was 19 at the time, obtained a gun license.聽

At the time of the massacre, the gunman was too young to apply for a firearm license so his father sponsored his application despite knowing his son had a history of behaving violently. Several months before the attack, a relative reported to police that the teenager had a large collection of knives and had threatened to 鈥渒ill everyone.鈥� 

In the Highland Park case, was explicit: The father鈥檚 guilty plea, he said, should be a 鈥渂eacon鈥� to others that parents can be held accountable for the actions of their children. 

鈥淲e鈥檝e laid down a marker to other prosecutors, to other police in this country, to other parents, that they must be held accountable,鈥� Lake County State Attorney Eric Rinehart said. 鈥淭he risk of potentially losing this innovative prosecution 鈥� and not putting down any marker 鈥� was too great for our trial team.鈥� 

Yankah said it鈥檚 important to look at new parental accountability efforts through their historical contexts. 

鈥淟ooking back at history,鈥� he said, 鈥渟hows us that our historical experiments with this kind of liability for parents has rarely solved the underlying problem,鈥� he said. 鈥淢aybe this kind of case will have an effect, maybe parents will be more attentive. But to speak honestly, I think what a case like this shows is how many different things we as a society have to work on if we really want to be free of this violence.鈥�

A Michigan jury found Jennifer Crumbley, the mother of the Oxford High School shooter, guilty of involuntary manslaughter Tuesday.

In a , the jury found that Crumbley bore enough responsibility for the deaths caused by her son鈥檚 actions that she should be held criminally liable.

At age 15, Crumbley鈥檚 son shot and killed four of his classmates at Oxford High School on Nov. 30, 2021, days after his father bought him a gun. Crumbley鈥檚 son was sentenced to life without parole in December.

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Crumbley鈥檚 husband, James Crumbley, has a separate trial scheduled for March.

After two days of deliberations, a jury in Oakland County Circuit Court in metro Detroit delivered the guilty verdict for Jennifer Crumbley on four counts of involuntary manslaughter, one for each of the students killed: Madisyn Baldwin, Tate Myre, Hana St. Julianna and Justin Shilling.

The jury had been tasked by the court to determine whether Crumbley鈥檚 actions warranted involuntary manslaughter charges, which marks new legal ground for determining responsibility for a mass shooting.

Crumbley now faces up to 15 years in prison ahead of her sentencing scheduled for April 9.

Her defense argued during the trial that began on Jan. 25 that Crumbley couldn鈥檛 have known what her son was going to do. She was portrayed as an attentive parent who was aware that her son was going through a hard time, but nothing indicated he would become a school shooter.

鈥淚t was unforeseeable; no one expected this,鈥� Shannon Smith, a lawyer for Crumbley, said in her closing arguments. 鈥淣o one could have expected this, including Mrs. Crumbley.鈥�

But the prosecution argued that Crumbley failed as a parent to perform her legal duty to exercise reasonable oversight to her son to prevent him from harming others and was negligent to the point that it harmed human life.

The prosecution proved Crumbley鈥檚 role in the shooting and how she could have intervened at several points beforehand to get her son help or secured the firearms in the home, but she didn鈥檛, Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said in her closing arguments.

鈥淲e have proven beyond a reasonable doubt that she is guilty of four counts of involuntary manslaughter. It鈥檚 a rare case. It takes some really egregious facts. It takes the unthinkable and she has done the unthinkable and because of that four kids have died,鈥� McDonald said.

Despite audibly crying at several points throughout the trial, Crumbley didn鈥檛 have a substantial reaction to the verdict being read. McDonald and other members of the prosecution hugged family members of the slain children.

In addition to the four students who were killed, the shooter injured six other students and a teacher. Molly Darnell, the teacher who was shot in the arm, was the first witness to testify at the start of the trial in January. A total of 22 witnesses spoke during the trial, including Crumbley, members of law enforcement and people who had interactions with Crumbley.

A major element of the prosecution鈥檚 justification for the involuntary manslaughter charges was Crumbley鈥檚 actions the day of the shooting after she and her husband were called to the school because the shooter had done a drawing of his gun on his math assignment.

Four days prior, the shooter and his father went to a gun shop and the father purchased the gun used in the killings on Black Friday as an early Christmas present.

After the meeting at the school where Crumbley and her husband were advised to seek out professional help for their son, the prosecution brought in witnesses from the school and law enforcement to show that neither parent took the shooter out of school for the day. Neither parent checked their son鈥檚 backpack where he had the gun. And neither parent asked their son where his gun was or checked to see if it was still at home.

There had been other meetings with the shooter鈥檚 parents, Shawn Hopkins, the school counselor at the meeting the day of the shooting, said during the trial. He said he was hoping one of the parents would take the shooter home. Although Hopkins didn鈥檛 tell them they had to, he thought it was strange they didn鈥檛.

鈥淪he sat down in the chair; [I] felt she was a little bit distant. 鈥� It felt like it was a little bit of an inconvenience to be there,鈥� Hopkins said of Crumbley during the meeting.

Hopkins said the shooter showed signs of possible suicidal thoughts and he didn鈥檛 want him to be alone. Hopkins added that he did not know that the shooter鈥檚 father had bought him a gun.

In addition to the drawing of a gun, the shooter鈥檚 assignment had the words, 鈥渕y life is useless鈥� and 鈥渢he thoughts won鈥檛 stop help me,鈥� written in addition to other statements and drawings.

When school officials asked Crumbley and her husband to go to the school, Crumbley testified she thought the shooter had sketched the gun in defiance of a recent conversation they had about his falling math grade, during which he had his phone taken away and was told he couldn鈥檛 go to the shooting range until his grade improved.

This was the first time she and her husband had been called to the school on an 鈥渋mmediate鈥� time frame, Crumbley testified and she had told her boss she would be back at work an hour later.

Crumbley said she expected her son to get in trouble and get suspended, but the meeting was 鈥渘onchalant鈥� and 鈥渂rief.鈥�

鈥淭here is never a time where I would refuse to take him home,鈥� Crumbley testified, adding that she told her husband to start calling mental health professionals suggested by Hopkins.

Crumbley said she and her husband lost everything, adding she doesn鈥檛 feel like she failed as a parent and she had no reason to think her son was a danger to anyone else. She said she doesn鈥檛 look back and think she would have done anything differently.

鈥淵ou spend your whole life trying to protect your child from other dangers. You never would think you have to protect your child from harming somebody else,鈥� Crumbley testified, adding that she wished he would have killed her and her husband instead of the other kids at the school.

The shooter鈥檚 father was responsible for gun storage as firearms were not really her thing, Crumbley said. The gun that was bought for her son鈥檚 use was secured using a cable lock and the key to unlock it was hidden in one of the many decorative beer steins throughout the house.

The prosecution 鈥渃herry-picked鈥� evidence to make Crumbley look like a negligent mother and conflate the magnitude of the tragedy with Crumbley鈥檚 parenting, Smith said as part of Crumbley鈥檚 defense. Hours of the trial were dedicated to members of law enforcement going over the gruesome details of the shooting. But Smith said the case came down to the prosecution improperly asking the jury to come to the assumption that Crumbley could have conceived what no parent would think their child would be capable of.

鈥淲hen you look back in hindsight, with 20-20 vision 鈥� it is easy to say this could have been different, that could have been different, this would have changed,鈥� Smith said.

Due to the community impact of the shooting and the future legal implications for parents of mass shooters in the future, the case has garnered national attention.

The jury鈥檚 verdict stands as a reminder to parents and gun owners that they are responsible for ensuring children can鈥檛 access their firearms unsupervised, Nick Suplina, senior vice president for law and policy at Everytown for Gun Safety, said in a statement after the verdict was read.

鈥淧lain and simple, the deadly shooting at Oxford High School in 2021 should have 鈥� and could have 鈥� been prevented had the Crumbley鈥檚 not acquired a gun for their 15-year-old son,鈥� Suplina said. 鈥淭his decision is an important step forward in ensuring accountability and, hopefully, preventing future tragedies.鈥�

The decision marks Michigan setting a standard for the legal response to 鈥渨hen our kids are killed in their sanctuaries,鈥� U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Holly) said in a statement Tuesday. She applauded .

鈥淭oday is a historic day in Michigan, and really for the whole country. Having watched the Oxford community go through this school shooting firsthand, and seeing the lifelong hole it ripped in the lives of everyone involved, this verdict feels like a small moment of relief,鈥� Slotkin said. 鈥淚t is my hope that it brings a bit of peace to the survivors and to the entire community, as I know everyone in Oxford has worked to heal together over the past two years.鈥�

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Michigan Advance maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Susan J. Demas for questions: info@michiganadvance.com. Follow Michigan Advance on and .

鈥淥ur elected officials have seen American after American drop from a bullet,鈥� said Corin, a survivor of the 2018 mass school shooting in Parkland, then the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School junior class president. As a co-founder of March For Our Lives, her advocacy in 2018 galvanized a countrywide movement that brought hundreds of thousands of demonstrators to the National Mall to demand new firearms laws. 鈥淎nd instead of waking up to protect us, they have been hitting the snooze button. But we鈥檙e here to shake them awake.鈥� 

Yet four years after youth activists chanted 鈥渘ever again,鈥� some might argue that America is still sleepwalking through wave after wave of gun violence. The latest mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, are once again wreaking havoc on American communities and student advocates are once again preparing to hit the streets to force an end to the carnage. 

On Saturday, Corin and other advocates with the youth-led March For Our Lives, including David Hogg and X Gonzalez, will return to Washington for a second rally to press for new firearm restrictions and a slew of policy changes they believe could thwart a gun violence rate that鈥檚 . 

Their insistence that children should never again be allowed to die by gunfire in school was belied 鈥� again 鈥� by  the reality of Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, where 19 children and two educators were shot and killed May 24.

鈥淔our years ago we said 鈥榥ever again,鈥� there鈥檚 never going to be another Parkland, and unfortunately that has not reigned true,鈥� Corin told 社区黑料. Since then, Corin has graduated high school and is now a rising senior at Harvard University, where she studies government and education. During those years, mass shootings have continued to grow more common, with the Uvalde assault  becoming the second-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history. 鈥淎 large reason for that is because barely anything has been done on a national level.鈥�

Along with , organizers have planned hundreds of , all in a matter of weeks. Ahead of the event, March For Our Lives advocates are to promote their agenda. 

They hope for a different outcome this time, but acknowledge the obstacles that have blocked change in the past remain as challenging as ever. In , President Joe Biden questioned 鈥渉ow much more carnage are we willing to accept?鈥� before calling on Congress to ban assault weapons 鈥� or to at least raise the age from 18 to 21 for those looking to buy one. He also pushed for a ban on high-capacity magazines, strengthening background checks and adopting a federal 鈥渞ed flag鈥� law that would allow courts to temporarily remove weapons from people deemed an imminent threat to themselves or others. At the same time, he lamented that 鈥渁 majority of Senate Republicans don鈥檛 want any of these proposals even to be debated.鈥� 

After the Parkland shooting, the Trump administration , a device that uses the recoil of a semiautomatic gun to mimic an automatic rifle. Yet even though then-President Donald Trump embraced an effort to raise the age on rifle sales, efforts fell flat. 

Earlier this week, in negotiations with Republicans over gun proposals after the Uvalde shooting while pointing out that compromises would be crucial to progress. Instead of major firearm restrictions, a bipartisan deal could encourage states to adopt red flag laws and new funding for campus security upgrades 鈥� a reaction that for years has followed virtually every mass school shooting. Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican from Texas, 鈥渋t will be embarrassing鈥� if Democrats and Republicans in the Senate fail to reach a legislative response to Uvalde. 

鈥婱eanwhile, a ruling this month from the U.S. Supreme Court a decades-old New York law that puts sharp limits on who can carry guns in public. 

For Corin, having a Democrat in the White House isn鈥檛 necessarily an encouraging sign. Biden has been president for a year and a half, yet 鈥渨e haven鈥檛 seen anything done,鈥� she said. While Biden has sought to pass the issue onto Congress, Corin said her group has called on the president to appoint a gun violence prevention director, to create a task force focused on the issue and to 鈥渄eclare gun violence a national emergency 鈥� but that hasn鈥檛 happened either.鈥� 

鈥淣o one is exempt from doing work on this issue,鈥� Corin said. 鈥淚 know the executive office doesn鈥檛 have all of the power, but ultimately everyone has a role to play.鈥� 

Corin is very aware that the post-Parkland focus on gun violence had a larger impact at the state level, where . In her native Florida, for example, lawmakers passed a red flag law, raised the age to buy rifles from 18 to 21, created a three-day waiting period on gun purchases and authorized certain educators to be armed at school. In New York, lawmakers responded swiftly to the Buffalo shooting and approved a new law on Monday to strengthen gun control measures, including a red flag law that was implemented after Parkland. 

鈥淚 can only hope that the same sadness and fury that the country is feeling now, as we all did back in 2018, will fuel the continuation of these changes on the state level and ultimately 鈥� hopefully 鈥� on a national level,鈥� said Corin, who the former Marjory Stoneman student who pleaded guilty in October to opening fire on the school. 

In its policy platform, March For Our Lives blames American gun violence on a culture of 鈥済un glorification,鈥� political apathy, poverty and 鈥渁rmed supremacy鈥� in which the threat of guns are used to 鈥渞einforce power structures, hierarchies, and status.鈥� And while they recognize a national mental health crisis exists, they oppose 鈥渟capegoating鈥� those with mental illnesses as being a threat to others when they鈥檙e actually more likely than those without such disorders to .

Solutions, according to the group, include a ban on assault rifles and high-capacity magazines and a national firearm buy-back program that could reduce the number of firearms in circulation by some 30 percent. There are an estimated 393 million guns in circulation across the U.S. 鈥� that鈥檚 more guns than people. 

But the group鈥檚 platform extends far beyond firearm policies to prevent violence and encompasses a slew of policies generally associated with Democrats. Those include ending the 鈥渨ar on drugs,鈥� combating the 鈥渟chool-to-prison pipeline,鈥� and reducing the scope of policing. 

For RuQuan Brown, a D.C. native whose stepfather was killed in a 2018 shooting, the conversation, he said, needs to 鈥渇ocus more on love than legislation.鈥� RuQuan, who is Black, said that urban gun violence has long failed to garner the same urgency as mass shootings like the ones that played out in Parkland and Uvalde despite . 

Through his work with March For Our Lives, Brown said he鈥檚 been able to help ensure that the experiences of all gun violence victims are reflected in reform efforts. 

鈥淚鈥檝e been able to work with March to make sure that when we talk about March For Our Lives, that all peoples鈥� lives are included in that,鈥� said Brown, who also attends Harvard. For him, uplifting disenfranchised communities will be the key to gun violence prevention. 鈥淭his country and its ancestors are extremely comfortable with the deaths of Black and brown people, it鈥檚 almost a part of the fabric of this country. America wouldn鈥檛 be what it is without the deaths of Black and brown people, the genocide, the rape and the forced labor.鈥�

He said it鈥檚 critical that lawmakers develop compassion for, and a commitment to help, society鈥檚 most marginalized people. If they were 鈥渃ommitted to furthering the well-being of all people,鈥� he said, 鈥淲e wouldn鈥檛 even be having this conversation about gun violence.鈥� 

With the midterm elections approaching, Corin predicted the recent mass shootings, including at the Uvalde elementary school and a Buffalo supermarket, could once again make gun violence a top issue on the campaign trail. It鈥檚 more important than ever, she said, for candidates to let people know on which side of the issue they stand. 

鈥淚f people aren鈥檛 clear on their stances and if they don鈥檛 act with courage, they鈥檙e going to be voted out,鈥� Corin said. 鈥淎nd you know what, we鈥檙e going to vote in someone that doesn鈥檛 believe that children should be shot in their seats in school.鈥�